[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (13 May 2022) 99 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 13, 2022
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	1
Turkey Vulture	0	0	470
Osprey	3	56	284
Bald Eagle	0	14	96
Northern Harrier	0	10	83
Sharp-shinned Hawk	22	184	666
Cooper's Hawk	3	11	55
Northern Goshawk	0	0	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	3	123
Broad-winged Hawk	60	398	1631
Red-tailed Hawk	3	6	139
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	2	62	302
Merlin	2	38	77
Peregrine Falcon	0	3	6
Unknown Accipiter	0	0	6
Unknown Buteo	0	0	5
Unknown Falcon	1	2	5
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	3	9	22
Total:	99	796	3974

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Biz Houghton, Carolyn Fensore, Dave Fensore

Visitors:
The park seemed empty on such a nice day. Only 11 visitors, all of whom were very quiet and pleasant. It was a very peaceful and calm afternoon atop The Brad.

Weather:
Another beautiful day in the neighborhood. Very minimal light clouds in the morning cleared out leaving solid blue skies all around. A very dense and tail fog bank lingered all day at the coast, barely budging an inch. Our view of Eagle Island was totally obscured. Temps were comfortable, in the 70's. Winds started out light from the SSW but didn't last long before switching to more SSE and some ESE. By the afternoon wind speeds increased and became persistent. The final hour of the count was very breezy but thankfully it wasn't chilly.

Raptor Observations:
Finally some immature birds! Where have they been, hanging to our south or getting pushed inland on the southerly winds we've been experiencing? Or some other reason entirely? Birds were scattered about despite having steady winds, some very far away towards the coast which I was a little surprised by. That's where many of today's unidentified birds came into play. The close birds I was generally able to age and a good chunk of todays count was immature birds, many young BW's and some 'tails. We had a nice display of our local gang of Turkey Vultures, about 15, which seemed to appear out of nowhere and came in close over the summit. I pointed out some of the closer birds to an amature photographer trying out a new camera who got some nice shots of a Kestrel and Red-tail before his battery died.

Non-raptor Observations:
In the first hour a first-of-season Indigo Bunting landed in the Oak tree directly in front of the summit. I was able to share the bird in my scope with an onlooker who had a minor interest in birds. I recalled I had digiscoped an Indigo Bunting in that tree a few years ago, so I checked my old photos and to my surprise today's bird was in the same branch as the bird in 2018, on this date within the same 15 minute time window. Pretty uncanny. Other FOY's for the day were a Scarlet Tanager which called twice before taking flight over the trees and a Savannah Sparrow which gave a few chip notes before spending a brief moment in the top of a Pine to our SW. Another bird of note was a Palm Warbler hanging around the summit. I tried to listen for other new Warblers but I came up short, and once the winds picked up it became more difficult to hear.

Predictions:
Tomorrow could feel like a scortcha' compared to what we've had in the past week with highs getting into the upper 70's. Clouds should be minimal and the winds may be light with a slight SW heading for the morning and switching more S midday. I'll take it. I have a feeling we'll see some more young birds and many more people.

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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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