[Maine-birds] Fw: Bradbury Mountain State Park (29 Mar 2023) 85 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 29, 2023
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	66	237	237
Osprey	0	0	0
Bald Eagle	5	35	35
Northern Harrier	4	14	14
Sharp-shinned Hawk	3	16	16
Cooper's Hawk	0	9	9
Northern Goshawk	0	0	0
Red-shouldered Hawk	2	31	31
Broad-winged Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	2	47	47
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	2	5	5
Merlin	0	4	4
Peregrine Falcon	0	1	1
Unknown Accipiter	0	1	1
Unknown Buteo	0	0	0
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	1	1	1
Total:	85	401	401

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Dave Fensore, Dave Gulick, Dick Baker, Rick Hartzell

Visitors:
It was a fairly busy Wednesday at the park with 21 visitors stopping by.

Weather:
It was a nice sunny blue sky day today. Only a few high clouds towards the end of the count. Visibility wasn't ideal, with lots of heat shimmer. Temps were comfortable, climbing into the mid 40's. By early afternoon the light NNW winds had swung around to the S and SE, becoming a little breezy and dropping the temperature slightly.

Raptor Observations:
It was a slow start to the day but with the shift in wind direction we started to see some more steady action. Not a massive flight of TV's but it was a good push of birds and nice to see we hadn't missed them all before the season started. Later in the day with the onshore winds we started detecting more birds to our W, likely being pushed inland slightly as they progressed northward. We had some really nice looks at one of our local Red-tails flying at eye level in the afternoon light.

Non-raptor Observations:
I hope I have enough space on the side of my data sheet for keeping tabs on the non raptors when they finally show up. It was another quiet day for passerines. Birds deemed migrating included: 13 Red-winged Blackbirds 5 American Goldfinch 3 Canada Geese 1 Eastern Bluebird

Predictions:
I hope you like the sound of wind. It looks like it will be blustery tomorrow with gusts getting into the 30mph range, for the entire day and coming from the NW. Air temps are going to be cooler, in the 30's and a wind chill maybe in the 20's. Sky cover should be minimal but it's unlikely there will be many thermals rising high.

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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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