[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (15 Apr 2017) 274 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 15, 2017
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	1	1
Turkey Vulture	0	251	511
Osprey	22	223	223
Bald Eagle	1	24	59
Northern Harrier	6	148	152
Sharp-shinned Hawk	52	318	330
Cooper's Hawk	1	35	43
Northern Goshawk	0	4	6
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	72	120
Broad-winged Hawk	156	348	348
Red-tailed Hawk	3	83	145
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	29	341	342
Merlin	3	26	27
Peregrine Falcon	0	1	2
Unknown Accipiter	0	4	4
Unknown Buteo	0	2	3
Unknown Falcon	0	1	1
Unknown Eagle	0	1	1
Unknown Raptor	1	11	15
Total:	274	1894	2333

Observation start time:	07:00:00
Observation end time:	17:00:00
Total observation time:	8.75 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Derek Lovitch, Don Thompson, Eric Graffam, Leon Mooney, Tom Downing

Visitors:
Dozens and dozens of people came and went from the summit today. There were many inquiries about the project and questions about what types of birds were being seen flying by. I suspect we will see as many, or more visitors tomorrow. Beware, parking spaces can be hard to find at this time of year.

Weather:
Blue sky and a few high clouds greeted me at the start of today's count. Temperatures were in the low forties in the morning and climbed to the mid sixties by noon time. The wind was out of the west and northwest until just after noon, at which point it switched to mostly east-southeast. Wind speed increased as the day progressed. We never felt the predicted south-southwest wind, as forecast.

Raptor Observations:
It was a good day for raptor migration. The total number was well below what I thought we might see had there been a south-southwest wind, but we never had a breeze coming from that direction. Birds never really fell onto an obvious flight line today, and remained scattered throughout the sky. Some birds passed by the summit low, while many were distant or extremely high overhead. Broad-winged Hawks are definitely back in town. Today was the first day I've made use of our clicker as a means to tally the birds, which is much more time efficient.

Non-raptor Observations:
32 species were seen or heard today, including a first of the season, Northern Rough-winged Swallow. Northbound birds included:

52 Double-crested Cormorants

18 Tree Swallows

8 Canada Geese

7 Great Blue Herons

4 Purple Finches

2 Common Loons

2 American Goldfinches

1 Yellow-rumped Warbler

Predictions:
Tomorrow should be even warmer than today. Highs could reach the mid 70's. Some overnight rain should be moving out by the morning hours, with the possibility of a shower or thunderstorm popping up. Skies should be mostly sunny with winds out of the west-southwest at 10-15mph. Tomorrow is shaping up to be another fun day of birding as long as the rain moves out and thunder storms hold off.

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Report submitted by Jeannette Lovitch (freeportwildbird@yahoo.com)
Bradbury Mountain State Park information may be found at: www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com/hawkwatch.asp