[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (02 May 2017) 18 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 02, 2017
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	1
Turkey Vulture	0	0	511
Osprey	0	0	312
Bald Eagle	0	0	70
Northern Harrier	0	0	172
Sharp-shinned Hawk	13	13	512
Cooper's Hawk	1	1	61
Northern Goshawk	0	0	7
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	0	124
Broad-winged Hawk	2	2	1305
Red-tailed Hawk	0	0	161
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	0	0	418
Merlin	2	3	47
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	6
Unknown Accipiter	0	0	5
Unknown Buteo	0	0	6
Unknown Falcon	0	0	2
Unknown Eagle	0	0	1
Unknown Raptor	0	0	28
Total:	18	19	3749

Observation start time:	10:00:00
Observation end time:	17:00:00
Total observation time:	4.25 hours
Official Counter	Derek Lovitch, Zane Baker
Observers:

Visitors:
10 people came by the hawkwatch today, most of whom arrived during the morning. Earlier on Derek was alone without reinforcements as a rowdy, uncontrollable group of savages wielding sticks and causing a ruckus spread across the summit, possibly still excited about conquering the mountain. I believe they call themselves Middle Schoolers. I arrived in time to bear witness to some of the aftermath.

Weather:
It was a frustrating start to today's count. Derek took the first shift, and after a two hour delay and multiple trips back and forth from home to check if the mountain had emerged from the fog he got thing started. Visibility came and went with some periods that gave the impression of clearing but quickly returned to near zero. Due to poor conditions and previous commitments Derek packed up, at which point I took over the monitoring of the weather conditions. At 2:15 I climbed back up the hill. Visibility was still poor but improving steadily. Winds remained very light from the south and southwest. By 3pm clouds had begun to break apart with obvious clearing to the west. The final hour of the count was partly cloudy and warm, around 60 degrees. It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon.

Raptor Observations:
Once the fog was pushed of further to the east birds started to appear. Presumably, because of a possible lack of thermals, birds were in powered flight more often than they were seen soaring. Sharp-shinned Hawks were the bird of the day.

Non-raptor Observations:
The morning hours were a bit more quiet than the afternoon, not by much though. During Derek's time he had a bird I missed in the afternoon, a first of year Black-throated Blue Warbler. While things were still slow in the first few minutes of my count period I was trying to view a Blue-headed Vireo through my scope, but instead of the Vireo a Blackburnian Warbler landed in my line of sight. Luckily nobody was around to hear the expletive I let out as I was caught off gaurd by the brilliantly bright bird. Not one but two Blackburnians flitted around the summit for a couple minutes along with the Vireo and a Black-throated Green Warbler.

Predictions:
Tomorrow should be a little drier overall, with partly cloudy skies in the morning before more clouds start to move back in during the afternoon. There is a slight chance of rain. Temps might reach the low 60s and winds could be quite strong from the west and northwest at 20-25mph. Tomorrow should be a full day of counting, and I am hoping to rack up some birds, if they brave the winds.

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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