[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (03 May 2020) 1814 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park

Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 03, 2020
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	1
Turkey Vulture	0	0	557
Osprey	84	105	352
Bald Eagle	4	4	87
Northern Harrier	12	12	49
Sharp-shinned Hawk	323	363	695
Cooper's Hawk	9	11	55
Northern Goshawk	0	0	6
Red-shouldered Hawk	1	1	65
Broad-winged Hawk	1270	1483	2230
Red-tailed Hawk	3	4	128
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	91	96	231
Merlin	10	10	68
Peregrine Falcon	4	4	5
Unknown Accipiter	0	0	11
Unknown Buteo	0	1	6
Unknown Falcon	1	1	5
Unknown Eagle	0	0	1
Unknown Raptor	2	4	18
Total:	1814	2099	4570

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	17:00:00
Total observation time:	9 hours
Official Counter	Luke Fultz
Observers:	Derek Lovitch, Jeannette Lovitch, Jim Pinfold, Michael Boardman, Scott Belongie

Visitors:
20 people visited the hawk watch today.

Weather:
Another absolutely gorgeous day on the summit. The day started out cloudy with light south winds. Winds were relatively stronger through the earlier part of the afternoon, becoming lighter by the end of the day.

Raptor Observations:
Today set a new day count record! Highest day count in 14 years of the spring migration survey on Bradbury Mountain. Shortly after the count was opened for the day, there were migrants in the sky. I had expected today to be a pretty good day, but no one could have predicted the activity observed from the summit of Bradbury Mountain today. Migration was explosive with 40% of all the migrant raptors observed this season, traveling today; Broad-winged Hawks making up 70% of today's migrants. Despite the dominance of the Broad-wings in the numbers, 11 different species of raptors were observed migrating.

Non-raptor Observations:
52 species were observed from the summit today. Individuals deemed migrating included: 1 American Pipit 1 Eastern Bluebird 2 Northern Rough-winged Swallows 2 Brown-headed Cowbirds 2 Yellowlegs sp. 3 Purple Finches 5 Blue Jays 6 Cedar Waxwings 9 Great Blue Herons 13 Barn Swallows 17 Common Loons 19 American Goldfinches 38 Red-winged Blackbirds 45 Common Grackles 150 Blackbird sp. 212 Tree Swallows 296 Yellow-rumped Warblers 615 Double-crested Cormorant

Predictions:
Another warm day tomorrow with intermittent cloud cover increasing through the day. Light northwest winds picking up slightly in the afternoon, but are expected to remain light. Slight chance of precipitation, but it's hard to say if anything will come from it at this point. After the push of migration activity observed today, if winds remain light enough we may still see birds moving through the area.

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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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