[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (31 Mar 2018) 56 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 31, 2018
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	22	204	204
Osprey	0	0	0
Bald Eagle	5	55	55
Northern Harrier	1	3	3
Sharp-shinned Hawk	5	21	21
Cooper's Hawk	0	21	21
Northern Goshawk	0	3	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	1	46	46
Broad-winged Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	12	103	103
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	8	9	9
Merlin	1	3	3
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Accipiter	0	1	1
Unknown Buteo	0	1	1
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	1	2	2
Total:	56	472	472

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	17:00:00
Total observation time:	8.5 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Asa Paul, Derek Lovitch, Lionel Quirion, Susan Rowe, Tim Paul

Visitors:
Quite a lot of people were enjoying the park today. 47 people stopped at the hawkwatch.

Weather:
Clear skies persisted for the day today. The sun was shining bright, making for air temps in the high 40's. Having zero cloud cover felt great for observers, but made for tough spotting of birds overhead. Unfortunately there was a little stronger wind than predicted, early on, mostly from the north. As the day progressed, the winds slowly shifted to the west and eventually south and east southeast. Visibility was pretty good, with some heat distortion apparent.

Raptor Observations:
The day started off slowly, given the wind direction, but the afternoon was really fun, with a mix of different species. Birders and non birders were excited to see a male Northern Harrier fly low past the mountain in the afternoon light. We had a few other great looks at American Kestrels, during a late day Falcon flight. We could have had a nice look at a Merlin too, if it had slowed down a bit. Derek and I stayed an extra half hour, and were able to pick up a few more birds, including a group of 11 Turkey Vultures.

Non-raptor Observations:
The first of the year Tree Swallows were spotted today; 16 in total. The summit seemed unseasonably quite today. A total of only 21 species were seen or heard. Other species deemed migrating included: 332 Canada Geese 38 American Crows 14 Common Mergansers 13 Common Grackles 8 Ring-billed Gulls 7 Duck spp. 6 Eastern Bluebirds 4 American Blackducks 3 Killdeer

Predictions:
It should be another relatively clear sky day tomorrow. High temps may reach into the 50's, and winds appear to be coming from the southwest for the first half of the day, possibly changing to more westerly by the afternoon. With few clouds and plenty of sun, there could be some good thermal production in conjunction with favorable winds. Higher wind speeds and some gusts could be an issue. Tomorrow could be interesting.

---

Report submitted by Jeannette Lovitch (freeportwildbird@yahoo.com)
Bradbury Mountain State Park information may be found at: www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com/hawkwatch.asp
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]

---