[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (18 Apr 2017) 90 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 18, 2017
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	1	1
Turkey Vulture	0	251	511
Osprey	19	261	261
Bald Eagle	1	26	61
Northern Harrier	2	153	157
Sharp-shinned Hawk	6	354	366
Cooper's Hawk	3	41	49
Northern Goshawk	1	5	7
Red-shouldered Hawk	3	75	123
Broad-winged Hawk	53	599	599
Red-tailed Hawk	1	87	149
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	0	366	367
Merlin	0	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	1	17	21
Total:	90	2272	2711

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	7.25 hours
Official Counter	Derek Lovitch, Jeannette Lovitch
Observers:	Zane Baker

Visitors:
19 people visited the Hawkwatch today, including young budding birder Mathew. Dozens more families and a schoolgroup from Kennebunkport - who all lined up to get a view through the Leica scope - also dropped by during the course of a cool, but busy, spring vacation day.

Weather:
High pressure overhead slid offshore, setting up an onshore northeasterly flow, becoming east, and eventually southeast as the day went on. Temperatures were just a little below normal, but felt shockingly chilly after our recent warmth. Mostly cloudy skies also kept temperatures down, but periods of sun in the morning allowed raptors to pick up some altitude.

Raptor Observations:
Local Broad-winged Hawks put on a good show today, including one right over the summit early in the day. A couple of local Cooper's Hawks displayed as well, one bird in the distance at a weird angle momentarily getting the heart pumping.

Non-raptor Observations:
A total of 35 species were seen and/or heard from the summit today including a vociferous Barred Owl and 4 truant BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS that spent about a half hour at the summit in the late morning, finding what little was left of Common Juniper berries.

Hawkwatch Garter Snake put in a lethargic appearance.

Throughout the day, a trickle and little bursts of southbound Tree Swallows suggested a sizable reverse migration, likely birds that headed north on the warm air and found inland lakes and ponds still frozen or too cold to host much in the way of aerial insect life.

Northbound migrants included:

21 Yellow-rumped Warblers

8 Double-crested Cormorants

6 Purple Finches

4 Brown-headed Cowbirds

2 Pine Siskins

1 Palm Warbler

Predictions:
High pressure will continue to slide off to the east, unfortunately setting up a southeasterly to southerly flow ahead of an approaching cold front. Temperatures should be a few degrees warmer today, and light southerly winds can produce decent flights. Considering the total today on our least productive winds, if the winds remain light to moderate tomorrow, we should have some more migrants, and perhaps some more waterbirds mixed in to spice things up.

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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