[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (04 May 2019) 37 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 04, 2019
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	0	573
Osprey	7	13	397
Bald Eagle	0	3	75
Northern Harrier	2	4	143
Sharp-shinned Hawk	11	25	543
Cooper's Hawk	0	2	64
Northern Goshawk	0	0	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	0	97
Broad-winged Hawk	5	43	2927
Red-tailed Hawk	0	2	187
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	2
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	4	7	445
Merlin	7	9	70
Peregrine Falcon	1	1	3
Unknown Accipiter	0	1	4
Unknown Buteo	0	0	6
Unknown Falcon	0	0	6
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	1	15
Total:	37	111	5560

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Dave Fensore, Derek Lovitch, John Lorenc, Terez Fraser

Visitors:
The weekend and warmer weather brought 42 visitors to the site today.

Weather:
Today's weather was quite a contrast to the previous few days, or week for that matter. The sun was almost in full force for much of the morning and again around closing time. Skies remained mostly cloudy but it was often a very thin layer, allowing the strength of the sun to come through. Temperatures were much closer to normal for this time of year, in the high 50s. Winds remained very calm for most of the day and any light breeze was variable in direction, until the final hour or so of the count, when a light onshore breeze from the SSE kicked up a bit, cooling things down ever so slightly. Visibility was pretty good all day with a brief period of difficult heat distortion.

Raptor Observations:
Today was more of a success than yesterday but still not what we were hoping for. The first few hours were very slow, with a slight uptick around noon, when a couple more migrants took to the air. The rate of birds per hour leveled out from that point on at about 7. There seemed to be many more displaying Broadwing pairs around today than have been seen recently. The morning hours I was mostly watching multiple pairs going back and forth throughout the area. In the afternoon we had a short burst of activity as a couple Sharp-shinned Hawks blew past some local Eagels and a Red-tail followed by 4 Merlins, all within a matter of a minute or two. It felt like we might have a small falcon flight coming but it was short lived and it was back to searching high and low for a single migrant. Not long after that small influx I checked the sky to the West to find a single long winged pointy looking bird. Our third Peregrine of the season. It's arrival came slightly after the shift in wind direction to the SSE, possibly pushing this bird further inland away from the coast where they often travel. The bird circled as it approached, passing fairly low overhead. It was a nice look at the bird with binoculars or a scope.

Non-raptor Observations:
I was really hoping to arrive at the summit to a new species or two for the season but unfortunately that didn't happen. There were a few more birds heading north today though, and those included: 179 Double-crested Cormorants 12 Tree Swallows 9 Canada Geese 4 Barn Swallows 3 Chimney Swifts 1 Common Loon 1 Purple Finch

Predictions:
Another low pressure system is passing by to our south and may bring in some drizzle in the early morning. Things should dry up and we may be left with a similar day like today. Highs should be breaking 50 degrees with diminishing clouds in the afternoon. Winds appear to be a little mixed but light, starting out NE shifting briefly E and settling on SE by the afternoon.

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Report submitted by Jeannette Lovitch (freeportwildbird@yahoo.com)
Bradbury Mountain State Park information may be found at: www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com/bradbury-mountain-hawkwatch
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]

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