[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (28 Apr 2024) 11 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 28, 2024
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	355	628
Osprey	0	381	382
Bald Eagle	0	20	42
Northern Harrier	0	125	137
Sharp-shinned Hawk	5	358	376
Cooper's Hawk	0	16	28
American Goshawk	0	1	1
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	8	30
Broad-winged Hawk	1	1186	1186
Red-tailed Hawk	0	19	49
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	3	292	292
Merlin	2	39	45
Peregrine Falcon	0	1	2
Unknown Accipiter	0	9	9
Unknown Buteo	0	4	4
Unknown Falcon	0	10	11
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	14	14
Total:	11	2838	3236

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

Visitors:
People scattered pretty quickly with the pop-up shower but later started to come out again like the Munchkins realizing the Wicked Witch has been dispatched. It really was no miracle, what happened was just this The wind began to switch...

Weather:
Today was not at all what I was expecting or prepared for. At the start there was a very small amount of blue sky way way off to the E, and to the W the skies were getting darker by the minute. By the second hour rain had started to fall which later turned to drizzle but lasted about 2hrs. Wind speeds from the SSE also increased and dropped the mid 40 degree temps down a little. Once the skies dried up there were some hints of blue sky momentarily before becoming totally overcast again and for the remainder of the day. The afternoon was mostly dead calm with a little fog in the distance but overall excellent visibility.

Raptor Observations:
What a weird day it was. Nothing was really moving out ahead of the fast approaching rain, nor was there much activity from the local crowd. Immediately post rain some of the resident Broad-wings took to the sky and sounded off for a few minutes as they took laps around the summit, but an hour later the skies were mostly empty again. I only saw one Eagle briefly today, which is unusual since they can be found at almost any time during the day. We did get really nice looks at a Merlin in the pm hours along with a very close Osprey carrying it's catch.

Non-raptor Observations:
Birds were laying low today and I was struggling to hear anything singing and it was even more difficult to get eyes on birds. 23 species were eventually identified from the summit today.

Predictions:
Should I bother? I'm being told it should be sunny and in the 60's with a NNW wind, gusting at times. I hope to beat today's numbers.

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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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