The 16th season of the Bradbury Mountain Spring Hawkwatch is in the books. A big thank you to Zane Baker, our veteran Official Counter for all of his hard work spotting birds, keeping track of them, and writing these reports. And a sincere thank you to Bradbury Mountain State Park for hosting the project.
Until next spring,
Derek
Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA
Visitors:
I would like to thank Derek and Jeannette Lovitch of Freeport Wild Bird Supply for asking me back for another fun season of counting and for sponsoring this project for 16 years now. I really enjoy my time spent at the summit searching for birds, which is also made possible with the cooperation from Bradbury Mountain State Park who hosts us. We get a lot of foot traffic to the site and this year was no exception. There seemed to be more genuine interest from people unfamiliar with raptor migration and birds in general. We had a lot of new faces coming up to help scan the skies and hopefully witness part of this cool phenomenon, many sticking it out on slower days too. Sorry I can't be more accurate in my predictions for good flights but thank you to everyone who helped and nice to meet you. A big thanks to a few of the more seasoned hawkwatchers, including: Jim, Dave, Rich, and Biz who put in a lot of hours and played key rolls in helping spot, track, ID, promote the store and also running interference for me, answering questions, sharing their optics, passing out bird related gifts for kids and not to mention the great security detail for my spotting scope when I stepped away. There were only two, strange, incidences with the optics this season but no harm done. And for a final fun note: A total of 388.07 hours of coverage this season 4 Days of coverage with 0 birds 8 Days of no count conducted due to weather 32.7lbs of potatoes consumed at the summit (old reference) 05:33 average Summit Trail ascent time with gear Min=3:52 Max 8:38 . 4 Fighter Jets with payload ~ 6 party balloons adrift 1 UFO 1 Solar Eclipse ~97% of totality I hope everyone has a great summer. Thank you for a fun season.
Weather:
It felt a little like Mother Nature was thumber her nose at us on the final day of the count. We remained comfortably warm all day and at last we got the SW breezes we have been hoping for the entire season. Too little too late. The morning was brighter than the afternoon, with a few breaks of blue sky. Clouds filled in early but remained thin and the sun's strength could still be felt. There was some moisture in the are and it certainly felt humid, which I love. The haze did disrupt or visibility for most of the day, only improving during the final hour of the count period. Winds remained light all day and were mostly southerly with periods of our beloved SW.
Raptor Observations:
It was a slow start to the day with locals and migrants, and I wasn't sure if we might get skunked on the last day. Thankfully, a Merlin announcing it's arrival to the summit helped to kick off what was a decent flight for the final day. Around 1pm EDT I got a little morale boost as a few immature Broad-winged Hawks popped up above the trees and shot N. A few more passed by as singles and doubles shortly after but unfortunately that didn't blossom into an epic flight. Skies got quiet again and every once in a while some of the local BW's would call or display in the area. One immature Broad-wing seems to have taken a liking to the area and was seen a number of times escorting other birds out of the space. We ended this season a little below our sixteen year average, which will lower our average. But hey, that should be an easier target next year. Kidding. With weather patterns changing we just don't seem to be experiencing the same SW conditions of the past and we are getting more SE and NE, which is not ideal for the birds moving up the eastern flyway, or maybe I should say, it doesn't help us to detect birds from the summit, as they may be pushed further inland and we might just not be able to detect them on that trajectory. No rarities were reported this season despite a couple hopefuls being seen in the area at large to our S. Those two species being Black Vulture and Mississippi Kite. One of the big highlights for me this season occurred during this year's big day on April 13th. It turned out to be a good day for Osprey and at one point we had a kettle of 21 together, which was super cool to see. We also set a record for Northern Harriers this year with the highest day-count which was great fun since they are one of my favorite species to see go by. A total of 56 in one day.
Non-raptor Observations:
The final new species of the season is brought to you by the Bay-breasted Warbler which was here and gone in a flash. That brings our total species of birds seen or heard from the summit to an even 90, which is likely a little less than previous years, as I can think of a few birds we might typically see but did not, this season. Weather and timing of when leaves started to appear along with insect life all play a roll in what was happening in terms of bird life around the summit. This season on average just didn't feel very birdy. The summit felt awfully quiet for the end of the season and even the birds which nest in the park were mostly being heard by themselves instead of multiple songs from the same species singing all around. We never experienced any really big flights of Canada Geese, blackbirds, or Double-crested Cormorants. Maybe some of them were already further north by the time we started, given how mild the weather had been leading into the season. Our local Barred Owls which are usually heard calling from the woods to our SW may have move across Rte 9 to the E side of the park which is where most of their activity has been coming from lately.
Predictions:
Head up if you'd like, there does seem to be more immature birds out there. Given the large swath of rain far to our S on the final day, birds may have been cut off. A little sun and a light SW or W might be interesting. Good luck, I hope you stir up something cool!
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]
Pownal, Maine, USA
| Daily Raptor Counts: May 15, 2024 | |||
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 628 |
| Osprey | 0 | 36 | 429 |
| Bald Eagle | 0 | 15 | 62 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 15 | 153 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 3 | 114 | 501 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 0 | 10 | 40 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 0 | 1 | 31 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 16 | 233 | 1444 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 3 | 53 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 20 | 314 |
| Merlin | 1 | 17 | 62 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 4 | 18 |
| Total: | 20 | 470 | 3764 |
| Observation start time: | 07:30:00 |
| Observation end time: | 16:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 8.5 hours |
| Official Counter | Zane Baker |
| Observers: | Dave Fensore, Derek Lovitch, Nate Johnson |
Visitors:
I would like to thank Derek and Jeannette Lovitch of Freeport Wild Bird Supply for asking me back for another fun season of counting and for sponsoring this project for 16 years now. I really enjoy my time spent at the summit searching for birds, which is also made possible with the cooperation from Bradbury Mountain State Park who hosts us. We get a lot of foot traffic to the site and this year was no exception. There seemed to be more genuine interest from people unfamiliar with raptor migration and birds in general. We had a lot of new faces coming up to help scan the skies and hopefully witness part of this cool phenomenon, many sticking it out on slower days too. Sorry I can't be more accurate in my predictions for good flights but thank you to everyone who helped and nice to meet you. A big thanks to a few of the more seasoned hawkwatchers, including: Jim, Dave, Rich, and Biz who put in a lot of hours and played key rolls in helping spot, track, ID, promote the store and also running interference for me, answering questions, sharing their optics, passing out bird related gifts for kids and not to mention the great security detail for my spotting scope when I stepped away. There were only two, strange, incidences with the optics this season but no harm done. And for a final fun note: A total of 388.07 hours of coverage this season 4 Days of coverage with 0 birds 8 Days of no count conducted due to weather 32.7lbs of potatoes consumed at the summit (old reference) 05:33 average Summit Trail ascent time with gear Min=3:52 Max 8:38 . 4 Fighter Jets with payload ~ 6 party balloons adrift 1 UFO 1 Solar Eclipse ~97% of totality I hope everyone has a great summer. Thank you for a fun season.
Weather:
It felt a little like Mother Nature was thumber her nose at us on the final day of the count. We remained comfortably warm all day and at last we got the SW breezes we have been hoping for the entire season. Too little too late. The morning was brighter than the afternoon, with a few breaks of blue sky. Clouds filled in early but remained thin and the sun's strength could still be felt. There was some moisture in the are and it certainly felt humid, which I love. The haze did disrupt or visibility for most of the day, only improving during the final hour of the count period. Winds remained light all day and were mostly southerly with periods of our beloved SW.
Raptor Observations:
It was a slow start to the day with locals and migrants, and I wasn't sure if we might get skunked on the last day. Thankfully, a Merlin announcing it's arrival to the summit helped to kick off what was a decent flight for the final day. Around 1pm EDT I got a little morale boost as a few immature Broad-winged Hawks popped up above the trees and shot N. A few more passed by as singles and doubles shortly after but unfortunately that didn't blossom into an epic flight. Skies got quiet again and every once in a while some of the local BW's would call or display in the area. One immature Broad-wing seems to have taken a liking to the area and was seen a number of times escorting other birds out of the space. We ended this season a little below our sixteen year average, which will lower our average. But hey, that should be an easier target next year. Kidding. With weather patterns changing we just don't seem to be experiencing the same SW conditions of the past and we are getting more SE and NE, which is not ideal for the birds moving up the eastern flyway, or maybe I should say, it doesn't help us to detect birds from the summit, as they may be pushed further inland and we might just not be able to detect them on that trajectory. No rarities were reported this season despite a couple hopefuls being seen in the area at large to our S. Those two species being Black Vulture and Mississippi Kite. One of the big highlights for me this season occurred during this year's big day on April 13th. It turned out to be a good day for Osprey and at one point we had a kettle of 21 together, which was super cool to see. We also set a record for Northern Harriers this year with the highest day-count which was great fun since they are one of my favorite species to see go by. A total of 56 in one day.
Non-raptor Observations:
The final new species of the season is brought to you by the Bay-breasted Warbler which was here and gone in a flash. That brings our total species of birds seen or heard from the summit to an even 90, which is likely a little less than previous years, as I can think of a few birds we might typically see but did not, this season. Weather and timing of when leaves started to appear along with insect life all play a roll in what was happening in terms of bird life around the summit. This season on average just didn't feel very birdy. The summit felt awfully quiet for the end of the season and even the birds which nest in the park were mostly being heard by themselves instead of multiple songs from the same species singing all around. We never experienced any really big flights of Canada Geese, blackbirds, or Double-crested Cormorants. Maybe some of them were already further north by the time we started, given how mild the weather had been leading into the season. Our local Barred Owls which are usually heard calling from the woods to our SW may have move across Rte 9 to the E side of the park which is where most of their activity has been coming from lately.
Predictions:
Head up if you'd like, there does seem to be more immature birds out there. Given the large swath of rain far to our S on the final day, birds may have been cut off. A little sun and a light SW or W might be interesting. Good luck, I hope you stir up something cool!
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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