[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (15 Mar 2024) Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 15, 2024
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	0	0
Osprey	0	0	0
Bald Eagle	0	0	0
Northern Harrier	0	0	0
Sharp-shinned Hawk	0	0	0
Cooper's Hawk	0	0	0
American Goshawk	0	0	0
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	0	0
Broad-winged Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	0	0	0
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	0	0	0
Merlin	0	0	0
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Accipiter	0	0	0
Unknown Buteo	0	0	0
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	0	0
Total:	0	0	0

Observation start time:	12:00:00
Observation end time:	15:00:00
Total observation time:	2.5 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Jeannette Lovitch

Visitors:
A couple of hikers joined Jeannette and myself for snacks and gossip before we decided to rearrange some furniture.

Weather:
Morning rain and drizzle kept us away from the mountain for the first half of the day. We opened the count at 1pm as the last of the rain was falling. Visibility was quite good upon arrival to the summit despite full cloud cover and humid conditions. Temperatures remained cool, right around 40F with a slight breeze coming from the NE. After a couple hours the fog started to move in along with some mist. We chose to shut things down early and hope for a better start tomorrow.

Raptor Observations:
We remained optimistic while conditions deteriorated on us. Unfortunately there were no raptors to be seen for our first day.

Non-raptor Observations:
The 2024 season is upon us already, sponsored by Derek and Jeanette Lovitch of the Freeport Wild Bird Supply store, and with the cooperation of Bradbury Mt. State Park. Even though the local weather has been very mild and quite warm lately with a lot of feeder activity, it is still mid March and I had to remind myself of that while looking at our species list. There were a couple birds such as Mourning Doves or Brown Creepers which I might have expected to see but under the circumstances I think we did alright with 16 species being heard or spotted, including a Barred Owl.

Predictions:
Currently, tomorrow's forecast seems promising. Winds should be light, mostly from the S with partly cloudy skies and comfortable temperatures in the mid 40's. It will be interesting to see what happens if the forecast holds true and before some more unsettled weather on Sunday. Will birds be taking advantage of a single nice day to get ahead of the next system? Birds have certainly been moving through the area already during the good conditions we've experience leading into the season. I've casually observed a number of Red-shoulder's heading north in the past week. I am hoping to officially spot some more tomorrow. Summit trail conditions are free of snow and ice with some slick leaves and mud.

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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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