[Maine-birds] Fw: Bradbury Mountain State Park (11 Apr 2022) 63 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 11, 2022
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	11	252	437
Osprey	8	57	58
Bald Eagle	0	9	69
Northern Harrier	0	33	48
Sharp-shinned Hawk	20	69	99
Cooper's Hawk	0	7	24
Northern Goshawk	0	1	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	2	14	108
Broad-winged Hawk	1	1	1
Red-tailed Hawk	1	20	121
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	16	51	61
Merlin	1	4	8
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	3
Unknown Accipiter	2	4	5
Unknown Buteo	0	1	2
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	1	2	3
Total:	63	525	1050

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Dave Fensore, Don Thompson, Jeannette Lovitch, Jim Pinfold, Mathew Gilbert, Tom Foley

Visitors:
10 visitors today. Thanks to everyone for the help.

Weather:
A nice warm day with temps getting into the low 60's today. Barely a cloud in sight all day long which made for a pleasant day but tough for spotting. Winds were pretty light and started the day blowing in from the northwest and becoming west and southwest by the end of the count. Visibility was ok with noticeable heat shimmer.

Raptor Observations:
It was a very tough day for spotting raptors. Without cloud cover, birds were being devoured by the abundant blue skies. Even plane contrails which get used as a point of reference were few and far between. Planes did however come in handy as they were on more than one occasion the impetus for finding birds. The planes and contrails acted as a point of reference and allowed our eyes to focus. It was a team effort today with people holding strong, straining necks and shoulders as they tracked birds for me while I tried to peer over heads and shoulders mimicking their line of sight, searching the vastness. One Osprey was tracked across the entire sky for minutes before it finally passed by the moon which allowed me to spot it. With the tough spotting conditions came more unidentified raptors, mostly resulting from needing to switch from binoculars to the scope and losing sight. We had a great look at a Gos' which circled over the summit before retreating to the trees just east of the mountain. This could be a resident which we have had in previous seasons. An early morning text from Hawkwatcher Katrina foreshadowed our day to come. She said Kestrels were headed our way and she had seen her first Broad-wing this morning in NH. That's what we got, more Kestrels and our first Broad-wing.

Non-raptor Observations:
Not much to note here. 7 Tree Swallows, 5 Robins and 2 Eastern Bluebirds were the only other northbound birds.

Predictions:
Possible rain in the morning which could hold up the start. Rain should be tapering off by the midday point. Winds are expected to be light from the southwest during the possibly wet timeframe and switching to more northwest in the afternoon. Temps should be climbing into the high 50's.

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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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