[Maine-birds] Fw: Bradbury Mountain State Park (13 Apr 2024) 686 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 13, 2024
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	59	328	601
Osprey	183	234	235
Bald Eagle	1	11	33
Northern Harrier	56	82	94
Sharp-shinned Hawk	121	160	178
Cooper's Hawk	4	7	19
American Goshawk	0	0	0
Red-shouldered Hawk	2	5	27
Broad-winged Hawk	148	149	149
Red-tailed Hawk	7	12	42
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	91	125	125
Merlin	4	9	15
Peregrine Falcon	0	1	2
Unknown Accipiter	1	3	3
Unknown Buteo	2	2	2
Unknown Falcon	2	4	5
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	5	5	5
Total:	686	1137	1535

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	17:00:00
Total observation time:	9 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Biz Houghton, Brandon Baldwin, Derek Lovitch, Dick Baker, Jen Baker, Jim Pinfold, Michael Boardman, Rich Fortin

Visitors:
The park didn't seem too busy for a nice Saturday and maybe that's a result of the muddy trails. 31 visitors to the site. If anyone knows what the mysterious object or material was, in the air over Freeport, I would love to know. A grayish oddly shaped object was perfectly stationary in the air and I tried to make it into a pair of kiting 'tails side by side. I locked my scope and could see it wasn't moving. However, it changed shape and became elongated like a pencil. When I stepped aside for someone else to look, it moved out of view before freezing in place again, and after a few seconds began changing shapes again. One of the most bizarre things I've seen doing this project. I feel like it was some kind of lightweight material or even a kite. It was high and eventually moved off but it was weird.

Weather:
Today's weather was more tame than I expected. The winds from the SSE this morning were pretty stiff but started to subside rather quickly. For the morning hours the wind shifted between SE and straight S. Fog was present for most of the day but wasn't inhibiting our search. The cloud ceiling remained low with a few breaks of blue sky. Some anticipated rain was slowly encroaching on the summit in the early afternoon and we just got scraped by the trailing edge of the showers. Temps cooled off a few degrees from the mid 50's after the rain but it was very comfortable up there today. After the moisture passed the winds became still with a barely detectable SW breeze.

Raptor Observations:
Today was kind of what I had hoped would happen. Winds were southerly with clouds preventing good thermals so birds were quite low and moving by quickly. The first hour was one of my favorites. It was like taking ticket stubbs at a movie. A low bird would come to the summit, I would make a tally, watch to ensure it went the correct direction, then turn and check-in the next bird which had been queued up. They were mostly right over my head to start. We may have set an Osprey and or a Harrier record for the day. I have never witnessed a kettle of 21 Osprey in the time I've worked this site, and it was pretty awesome. Osprey and Harriers just kept coming it seemed. Unfortunately I think I missed a lot today, and suspect other observers felt the same. I am very certain there were a lot more birds moving through than our official count says. Some of the unidentified birds were very far out and I am certain we could have found more at those distances. One thing that made today tricky was that birds didn't have thermals to linger in and instead were moving by rather quickly. With birds in a thermal I generally have more time to work top down with birds that are soaring and providing different angles and silhouettes, helping solidify a confident ID. Birds today also weren't in any distinct flight lines and were very scattered about the sky, often as individuals. With the tailwind, birds were often in a glide and not flapping, in a side-to or wing-on position making it more timely to break birds down into family and then species, chewing up precious time while other birds are being spotted. I generally will prioritize close birds before spending more time on harder distant birds. As much as I want to count every single bird, I also want to be able to say with confidence that my data is accurate and that I'm not guessing. Also, I am more aware of what people are calling out and saying than I might let on. I'm not ignoring you, and I appreciate all the help. Thanks

Non-raptor Observations:
A Northern Flicker was our only new arrival today. There wasn't much passerine moment or many different songs and call to be heard. A Pine Warbler seems to have established itself among the pine trees at the summit and added another nice trill to compliment the Junco. A few more Cormorants moved through but not in big numbers just yet.

Predictions:
Tomorrow could be another fun day, with some showers predicted for later afternoon and W and WSW winds, possibly pushing more birds our way

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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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