[Maine-birds] Fw: Bradbury Mountain State Park (20 Mar 2021) 53 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park

Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 20, 2021
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	1	1	1
Turkey Vulture	6	28	28
Osprey	0	0	0
Bald Eagle	3	23	23
Northern Harrier	0	0	0
Sharp-shinned Hawk	2	2	2
Cooper's Hawk	6	11	11
Northern Goshawk	0	0	0
Red-shouldered Hawk	4	17	17
Broad-winged Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	23	41	41
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	0	0	0
Merlin	2	2	2
Peregrine Falcon	1	1	1
Unknown Accipiter	1	1	1
Unknown Buteo	1	2	2
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	3	4	4
Total:	53	133	133

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Andrew Sharp
Observers:	Chris Sayers , Dan Nickerson, Derek Lovitch, Jeannette Lovitch, Jim Pinfold, Tom Downing, Tom Foley

Visitors:
Visitors flocked to the summit on this sunny Saturday. 17 people stopped by to chat about the hawk watch.

Weather:
Today was a lovely day up at the summit. Temps were chilly when we arrived (32 F) but peaked at 50 F. A cloudless sky made spotting raptors difficult.

Raptor Observations:
Today was a great raptor day, especially considering how early in the season we are. We spent most of the day with eyes glued to scopes, trying to make raptors out of distant specks. Red-tails were on the move, with a season-high of 23. We had 3 regular FOS species today! (Sharp-shinned Hawk, Merlin, and Peregrine Falcon). The biggest highlight of the day occurred at 2:25 pm. A visitor pointed out a few large birds to our southeast over the mountain. One of the birds seemed a little off; too short-winged for a bald eagle, too dark for buteo. As the large black bird turned, it showed off its white-tipped wings. Black Vulture!

Non-raptor Observations:
Non-raptor migration was not massively impressive, the highlight was a flock of Common Redpolls calling as they flew by. Other migrating birds were as follows: -Common Grackle (2) -Eastern Bluebird (2) -Red-winged Blackbird (12) -Canada Goose (5) -European Starling (3) A total of 21 species were observed from the summit.

Predictions:
Winds will start off out of the west before shifting to to south; we expect to see a continuation of the great flight we saw today. Temps will be even higher than today, with a predicted high of 54 F. Another cloudless sky will continue to challenge our observers.

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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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