[Maine-birds] Fw: Bradbury Mountain State Park (13 Apr 2023) 106 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 13, 2023
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	190	500
Osprey	29	93	93
Bald Eagle	1	5	42
Northern Harrier	4	30	54
Sharp-shinned Hawk	21	85	105
Cooper's Hawk	1	5	16
Northern Goshawk	0	0	0
Red-shouldered Hawk	1	13	46
Broad-winged Hawk	25	35	35
Red-tailed Hawk	0	9	60
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	17	107	115
Merlin	3	12	19
Peregrine Falcon	0	2	3
Unknown Accipiter	0	3	5
Unknown Buteo	0	0	0
Unknown Falcon	1	2	2
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	3	6	8
Total:	106	597	1103

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

Visitors:
It was fairly busy in the park today and 20 people stopped by.

Weather:
The scent of Coppertone was in the air today. Nary a cloud in the sky and temps around 70. Winds were light and coming mostly from the SE. Visibility was not very good, as the heat shimmer was at it's worst.

Raptor Observations:
I'm not sure how 106 birds can feel like such a slow day. Maybe just because of the monotony of seeing just the color blue for eight hours. I thought we might have a bigger day than we did but I really can't complain given how slow it's been lately. In the first thirty minutes of the final hour we had a good wave of birds show up, then the flight shut down again. That was kind of the pattern all day. The highlight was the nice looks at adult male Harriers and also a great tag-team scolding of a Red-tail by a pair of Ravens.

Non-raptor Observations:
A little better than yesterday but not by a whole lot. I thought there was about to be a good blackbird movement but that dried up quickly. A Hermit Thrush started calling in the afternoon which I've been waiting for, knowing they were in the park since this past weekend but not sounding off or showing themselves during business hours. Northbound birds include: 62 Common Grackles 32 Canada Geese 10 Tree Swallows 6 Double-crested Cormorants 6 Blackbird spp. 4 Red-winged Blackbirds 2 Common Mergansers 1 Great Blue Heron 1 Common Loon 1 American Goldfinch

Predictions:
Tomorrow looks like it will be similar to today but the winds may start out from the NE before coming around to the SE again. I think we might have a little bit of clouds forming which will be helpful.

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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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