[Maine-birds] Fw: Bradbury Mountain State Park (06 May 2022) 228 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 06, 2022
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	1
Turkey Vulture	0	0	470
Osprey	9	33	261
Bald Eagle	4	11	93
Northern Harrier	5	8	81
Sharp-shinned Hawk	93	142	624
Cooper's Hawk	0	5	49
Northern Goshawk	0	0	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	3	123
Broad-winged Hawk	71	318	1551
Red-tailed Hawk	2	3	136
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	33	56	296
Merlin	7	28	67
Peregrine Falcon	1	2	5
Unknown Accipiter	0	0	6
Unknown Buteo	0	0	5
Unknown Falcon	1	1	4
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	2	5	18
Total:	228	615	3793

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Biz Houghton, Caroline Fensore, Cecile, Dave Fensore, Mathew Gilbert

Visitors:
22 visitors. We had a few more birders stopping by in the hopes of spotting some birds. Thanks for everybody's help today.

Weather:
The weather was nice today. There was a lot of sun in the first half of the day and temps climbed into the low 60's. Clouds eventually filled in but the temperatures held fairly steady. Winds were very light from the N and almost imperceptible in the morning. Around noon there was a shift to the SE and S at times and the wind speeds picked up dramatically, bringing in some slightly cooler air from the ocean. Occasionally some strong gusts swept the summit. In the later afternoon winds calmed down a bit but there was still a noticeable breeze. Visibility was decent.

Raptor Observations:
The morning was shaping up like yesterday with just a handful of birds on the move, until the winds shifted. As soon as the wind direction changed to SE, SSE we started to get more birds. It seemed as though birds were getting pushed inland. At times while scanning with the scope, birds would appear suddenly as they emerged from the heat shimmer, being pushed closer to the mountain. The SE wind direction may be responsible for having more falcons on the board, which tend to migrate a little closer to the coast. There weren't any established flight lines today but we certainly spent more time counting birds overhead and to our WNW than we did to our S and SE. Birds were often very high or far. I think we likely missed some birds in the blue sky before the clouds rolled in, which might have helped us detect them. We did have some closer birds which provided some entertainment. There was a nice aerial battle between a Merlin and a Kestrel and also a Harrier and Accipiter. We might have missed a Peregrine today if it wasn't for the keen eye of Caroline who was snagging birds left and right. Overall a fun day

Non-raptor Observations:
The morning was eerily quiet for a while. There was a period of a few minutes where I could not detect any bird sound of any kind in any direction. The silence was finally broken by a Blue-headed Vireo. Derek suspected there might be a flight of Yellow-rumps moving today, and sure enough there were. I tallied 18 but suspect there were many more mixed with other passerines which were beyond my detection limit. 29 species were seen or heard today.

Predictions:
Wind from the NE changing to E by midday with strong gusts. Temps will be on the cooler side, maybe in the low 50's. There may be a mix of sun and clouds. I'll try to remain hopeful here but I'm not making any promises.

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

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