[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (07 May 2019) 100 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park

Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 07, 2019
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	0	573
Osprey	6	25	409
Bald Eagle	0	3	75
Northern Harrier	1	5	144
Sharp-shinned Hawk	30	69	587
Cooper's Hawk	3	7	69
Northern Goshawk	0	0	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	1	98
Broad-winged Hawk	39	106	2990
Red-tailed Hawk	0	3	188
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	2
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	15	29	467
Merlin	5	17	78
Peregrine Falcon	0	1	3
Unknown Accipiter	0	2	5
Unknown Buteo	0	0	6
Unknown Falcon	0	1	7
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	1	3	17
Total:	100	272	5721

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	14:30:00
Total observation time:	6.5 hours
Official Counter	Derek Lovitch, Jeannette Lovitch
Observers:	Dave Fensore, Jeannette Lovitch

Visitors:
9 people visited the Hawkwatch today.

Weather:
Today was cut short by rain that eventually settled in by 3:30 EDT. The first 4 hours of the count were quite pleasant with a light SW breeze and intermittent sunshine. Temperatures got up into the 60s. By 1:00, it began to drizzle. Normally, we would have called it a day then, but birds were still coming through. So, the last hour and a half involved dodging rain showers under cooling skies.

Raptor Observations:
The day started out slowly with just some local activity. But, during the second hour, migrants started moving. It was never hectic, but stayed steady for the next 3 hours. There always seemed to be something to look at in the sky. As the rain approached from the west, kestrels and Sharp-shinned Hawks picked up the pace and continued to come through as raindrops were falling and visibility diminished. One Osprey was the last hawk counted today to end the day at exactly 100 birds.

Non-raptor Observations:
46 species were seen or heard from the summit today. There was a lot of passerine movement today, many passing by too far out to identify. We only recorded a smattering of what was seen today, with passerines passing through our optics seemingly every time we looked for hawks. Of the birds that we did have a chance to tally, those moving north included: 106 Tree Swallows 78 Double-crested Cormorants 35 Purple Finches 31 Blue Jays 30 swallow sp 17 blackbird sp 15 Common Grackles 12 Barn Swallows 6 Chimney Swifts 4 Yellow-rumped Warblers 3 Northern Rough-winged Swallows 2 Great Blue Herons 2 Red-winged Blackbirds 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird (FOY) 1 Purple Martin

Predictions:
Tomorrow's forecast calls for sunny conditions with temperatures in the upper 50s. If the Northwest wind stays calm enough, we will hopefully see another decent round of birds moving ahead of the next storm system at week's end.

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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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