[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (16 Apr 2017) 183 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 16, 2017
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	1	1
Turkey Vulture	0	251	511
Osprey	14	237	237
Bald Eagle	0	24	59
Northern Harrier	2	150	154
Sharp-shinned Hawk	24	342	354
Cooper's Hawk	3	38	46
Northern Goshawk	0	4	6
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	72	120
Broad-winged Hawk	112	460	460
Red-tailed Hawk	1	84	146
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	22	363	364
Merlin	1	27	28
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	4	15	19
Total:	183	2077	2516

Observation start time:	07:00:00
Observation end time:	18:00:00
Total observation time:	9.75 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Bob Beagan, Dave Gulick, Derek Lovitch, John Lorenc, Tom Downing

Visitors:
Quite a lot of people made it up the hill today. Lots of families gathering for the holiday, people jogging, dogs being walked, and a few hopeful folks looking for a possible rare bird to fly by. FOY shirtless dudes showed up today. "Sun's out guns out."

Weather:
We had a taste of summer at the mountain today. Blue skies and temps which climbed into the 70's. Winds remained strong for most of the day, coming from the southwest at the start of the day but quickly shifting to a more westerly orientation up until 5pm. By the official closing time winds finally died off, making for a spectacularly pleasant evening with a very light southwest breeze. In Portland, the second highest temperature on record for April was recorded. 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

Raptor Observations:
Not a bad day for raptors, but not the day I had envisioned. Birds could be found all over the sky today, many of which were high above, and appeared as dark specs even when viewed in the spotting scope. By 5pm winds finally subsided, and falcons started flying. A few observers stayed late to watch as the American Kestrels powered their way north.

Non-raptor Observations:
At midday a I heard a startled voice shout out from low on the summit, "what are these?" I turned to find a small kettle consisting entirely of Common Ravens. There were twelve birds in total, and after mixing around for a second, they seemed to pair up with each other as they flew to the west. That was the largest group of Ravens I have witnessed from this site. It's hard too look away from Ravens, they're such cool birds. Once the winds let up at the end of the day Tree Swallows came out in force. Small swarms of them could be seen darting back and forth against the evening sky. 36 species were seen or heard today.

Predictions:
Tomorrow should be a nice day with mostly sunny skies and temps in the mid 60's. Winds should be out of the west-northwest at around 10-15mph. As long as winds are not gusting to strongly, we ought to see some more movement tomorrow.

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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