Sunday, 28 April 2024

[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (28 Apr 2024) 11 Raptors



Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 28, 2024
SpeciesDay's CountMonth TotalSeason Total
Black Vulture000
Turkey Vulture0355628
Osprey0381382
Bald Eagle02042
Northern Harrier0125137
Sharp-shinned Hawk5358376
Cooper's Hawk01628
American Goshawk011
Red-shouldered Hawk0830
Broad-winged Hawk111861186
Red-tailed Hawk01949
Rough-legged Hawk000
Golden Eagle000
American Kestrel3292292
Merlin23945
Peregrine Falcon012
Unknown Accipiter099
Unknown Buteo044
Unknown Falcon01011
Unknown Eagle000
Unknown Raptor01414
Total:1128383236


Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 8 hours
Official CounterZane Baker
Observers: Biz Houghton, Dick Baker, Jim Pinfold



Visitors:
People scattered pretty quickly with the pop-up shower but later started to come out again like the Munchkins realizing the Wicked Witch has been dispatched. It really was no miracle, what happened was just this The wind began to switch...

Weather:
Today was not at all what I was expecting or prepared for. At the start there was a very small amount of blue sky way way off to the E, and to the W the skies were getting darker by the minute. By the second hour rain had started to fall which later turned to drizzle but lasted about 2hrs. Wind speeds from the SSE also increased and dropped the mid 40 degree temps down a little. Once the skies dried up there were some hints of blue sky momentarily before becoming totally overcast again and for the remainder of the day. The afternoon was mostly dead calm with a little fog in the distance but overall excellent visibility.

Raptor Observations:
What a weird day it was. Nothing was really moving out ahead of the fast approaching rain, nor was there much activity from the local crowd. Immediately post rain some of the resident Broad-wings took to the sky and sounded off for a few minutes as they took laps around the summit, but an hour later the skies were mostly empty again. I only saw one Eagle briefly today, which is unusual since they can be found at almost any time during the day. We did get really nice looks at a Merlin in the pm hours along with a very close Osprey carrying it's catch.

Non-raptor Observations:
Birds were laying low today and I was struggling to hear anything singing and it was even more difficult to get eyes on birds. 23 species were eventually identified from the summit today.

Predictions:
Should I bother? I'm being told it should be sunny and in the 60's with a NNW wind, gusting at times. I hope to beat today's numbers.


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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