[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (18 Apr 2022) 103 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 18, 2022
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	1	1
Turkey Vulture	0	285	470
Osprey	10	175	176
Bald Eagle	0	13	73
Northern Harrier	0	57	72
Sharp-shinned Hawk	31	341	371
Cooper's Hawk	0	19	36
Northern Goshawk	0	1	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	1	23	117
Broad-winged Hawk	50	635	635
Red-tailed Hawk	2	29	130
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	6	204	214
Merlin	3	13	17
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	3
Unknown Accipiter	0	5	6
Unknown Buteo	0	4	5
Unknown Falcon	0	1	1
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	6	7
Total:	103	1812	2337

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

Visitors:
20 visitors today.

Weather:
Blue skies without any clouds for the majority of the day. A wall of grey clouds approached at the end of the day as a front approached from the south and west. Temps just broke 50 degrees but it was the afternoon wind which really made it feel much cooler. Winds started out light from the WNW then shifted to SE around noon. SE winds persisted for the rest of the afternoon but increased in strength around 2pm. The final hour we were all kind of chilly as the wind was blowing very hard off the ocean without letting up. There was a lot of fidgeting and sniffling for the last hour.

Raptor Observations:
Birds were slow to get going and things were pretty spread out across the sky. Winds to our south were being reported as coming from the east which may have slowed things down to a trickle today. It felt like a much slower day than it turned out to be. The afternoon hours provided some nice looks at a few birds like Osprey and Merlin.

Non-raptor Observations:
Not much movement from the passerines today and nothing new for the day list. Bird song was quiet with the exception of a number of Pine Warblers in the morning. At the start of the day another lone Sandhill Crane was spotted far to the south and only moments later Lucy, a new hawkwatch visitor spotted a second Crane circling much closer, to our east. Glad she saw it, as it turned out to be a lifer for her. Sorry Derek I couldn't hide it.

Predictions:
Tomorrow doesn't look conducive to migration, at least not the morning. Lots of rain and wind to come. Rain may taper off in the afternoon but strong or even severe winds are likely to be a problem for the entire day. Easterly winds in the morning may swing through my least favorite direction, southeast and land on southwest for the end of the count. I don't expect much out of tomorrow but I have been surprised before.

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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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