[Maine-birds] Fw: Bradbury Mountain State Park (22 Mar 2023) 18 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 22, 2023
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	5	97	97
Osprey	0	0	0
Bald Eagle	0	27	27
Northern Harrier	1	6	6
Sharp-shinned Hawk	3	9	9
Cooper's Hawk	1	6	6
Northern Goshawk	0	0	0
Red-shouldered Hawk	5	26	26
Broad-winged Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	3	29	29
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	0	2	2
Merlin	0	0	0
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Accipiter	0	1	1
Unknown Buteo	0	0	0
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	0	0
Total:	18	203	203

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:

Visitors:
Not only were the skies quiet but so was the park. The 11 people who stopped to chat were about the only people I saw cross the summit all day.

Weather:
Cloud cover started pushing out towards the coast early in the day. Skies remained clear for the rest of the day. The morning was nice and calm until midday when a SSE breeze from the ocean picked up and started to drop the temperature. Temps were nice for the most part, in the 40's but the ocean air had a chill to it. Visibility wasn't great but not bad. Heat shimmer and a light haze made distant birds tough to identify.

Raptor Observations:
It felt like a slow day despite ending with 18 birds. There wasn't a lot of local activity to watch between passing migrants. The majority of my time was spent searching with a naked eye and some scans with bins as the southerly winds seemed to push most of the activity closer to or right over the summit. Most of the birds counted today were right at the mountain, being detected to our west and passing overhead.

Non-raptor Observations:
I though there might be a good push of blackbirds today with the sight of a flock of about 260 but after the first hour things really got quiet. 97 individual Grackles and 27 Red-winged Blackbirds passed by close but not much else. 4 Cedar Waxwings which stopped briefly was a nice treat.

Predictions:
Tomorrow looks to be fairly warm, in the mid 40's with a light S wind. Clouds should be moving in this evening and sticking around tomorrow. Rain is predicted with a stronger chance in the afternoon. The precipitation may start during the overnight which might shut down the flights leading into the day. If it stays dry throughout the morning maybe we can find some birds out in front of the wet weather. We'll see soon enough.

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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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