[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (26 Apr 2023) 76 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 26, 2023
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	2	2
Turkey Vulture	0	190	500
Osprey	13	227	227
Bald Eagle	0	9	46
Northern Harrier	3	49	73
Sharp-shinned Hawk	7	174	194
Cooper's Hawk	1	14	25
Northern Goshawk	0	2	2
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	16	49
Broad-winged Hawk	49	1377	1377
Red-tailed Hawk	0	14	65
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	1	209	217
Merlin	2	29	36
Peregrine Falcon	0	2	3
Unknown Accipiter	0	5	7
Unknown Buteo	0	1	1
Unknown Falcon	0	3	3
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	11	13
Total:	76	2334	2840

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

Visitors:
7 people stopped by Make-Out Point today.

Weather:
We were finally back on the mountain to count after the rain and fog. Visibility was fantastic all day long. A very low cloud ceiling filled the sky during the day with some brightening occurring in the afternoon, to our W and a little to the SE. The air was a little damp and a bit chilly, with temps in the low 40's. Winds were almost nonexistent at the summit with a breath of air from the SSE.

Raptor Observations:
The day started pretty darn slow for the first three hours with just two migrants. No good thermals or flight-lines developed today and birds seemed to appear out of thin air. While watching a relatively close Broad-wing through my scope, waiting for it to start gliding north, five more BW's suddenly appeared around it. Like rising bubbles in a murky swamp, one by one each bird popped out of the cloud layer. Other birds suddenly appeared in a small kettle over the summit too, leaving us clueless as to where they had just come from. Many birds were counted well to our SE today and I feel there was likely more migration taking place than we could detect.

Non-raptor Observations:
Still waiting on some more first-of-season birds to arrive. The surrounding woods were pretty quiet. The bird of the day was Double-crested Cormorants. A total of roughly 1,366 Cormorants were counted heading north along with: 6 Great Blue Herons 7 Yellow-rumped Warblers 5 Purple Finches 1 Tree Swallow

Predictions:
Maybe we'll get a few Falcons with tomorrows southerly breeze. The morning hours could have us and the birds contending with some showers but the afternoon looks to be a little brighter with some sun and temps in the upper 40's to 50. I would suspect tomorrow to be decent if the rains aren't too bad.

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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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