[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (21 Apr 2023) 186 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 21, 2023
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	1	1
Turkey Vulture	0	190	500
Osprey	15	208	208
Bald Eagle	1	9	46
Northern Harrier	1	46	70
Sharp-shinned Hawk	19	163	183
Cooper's Hawk	5	13	24
Northern Goshawk	0	2	2
Red-shouldered Hawk	1	16	49
Broad-winged Hawk	131	1312	1312
Red-tailed Hawk	0	13	64
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	8	202	210
Merlin	3	25	32
Peregrine Falcon	0	2	3
Unknown Accipiter	0	5	7
Unknown Buteo	1	1	1
Unknown Falcon	0	3	3
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	1	11	13
Total:	186	2222	2728

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Amanda Petry, Dave Fensore, Dick Baker, Jim Pinfold, Lionel Quirion, Ted Michalek

Visitors:
The park was busy but not too many people stopped by the count. At one point in the morning I counted 57 people at the summit. 9 official visitors

Weather:
Cloud cover pushed out during the morning hours, leaving brilliant blue skies. Later in the afternoon was a mix of clouds and sun. Temps stayed on the cooler side today, only getting into the low 50's. Winds stayed relatively light and were variable at the summit. The afternoon had steadier ESE and SSE ocean breezes.

Raptor Observations:
This turned out to be a better day than expected. Birds were on similar flight paths today. Most of our time was spent facing W and NW with many birds heading directly overhead. In the afternoon breeze we were getting some Broad-wings coming at us from the NW. For some reason we counted more Coops than usual. I hope our local bird wasn't making high passes back and forth. In the mid afternoon a very dark and relatively small and flat winged bird came at us in a glide from the W. It was a second Black Vulture for the season. The lighting wasn't the best but it was good enough to see plumage coloration and patterns.

Non-raptor Observations:
Still not much to report. The summit was pretty quiet all day. Nice views of a Palm Warbler in the morning light added a little color to the landscape. 23 species were seen or heard today.

Predictions:
Tomorrow looks like it will be similar to today with clouds and sun and less than ideal winds from the ESE with possible gusting in the afternoon. There is rain in the forecast but I'm not sure it is close enough to affect the flight tomorrow.

---

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]

---