Bradbury Mountain State ParkPownal, Maine, USA
| Daily Raptor Counts: May 13, 2024 |
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 628 |
| Osprey | 3 | 34 | 427 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 | 15 | 62 |
| Northern Harrier | 2 | 15 | 153 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 3 | 108 | 495 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 1 | 10 | 40 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 1 | 1 | 31 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 4 | 206 | 1417 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 1 | 3 | 53 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 17 | 311 |
| Merlin | 1 | 16 | 61 |
| 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 | 3 | 17 |
| Total: | 17 | 430 | 3724 |
| Observation start time: | 08:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 16:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 8 hours |
| Official Counter | Zane Baker |
| Observers: | Carolyn Fensore, Derek Lovitch, Dick Baker |
Visitors:5 visitors today, which seems light. One first for the season and maybe the patch-list, was our first horseback riding incident. A pretty brown horse dumped it's rider by scraping them off with a branch. Unfortunately the rider fell further than from the withers to the ground since the horse was coming up over a ledge. I saw the rider, facing me go off the back and dissappear out of sight. As I ran over I saw a helmeted head pop up and say "I'm okay". It was quite a scene and I don't know how she managed to walk away injury free. Phew!
Weather:Mostly sunny skies today and temps just into the 60's. Clouds approached from the W in early afternoon before mostly disappearing, only to return at the end of the count. Winds were a bit of a challenge today. Light breezes continued to increase each hour until just after noon when they held strong for the remainder of the day. Gusty SSE brought with it some cooler ocean air. Visibility was pretty good except for heat shimmer and scope shaking, from the wind.
Raptor Observations:This feels more and more like the tail end of a migration season. Local birds are either spending more time building or sitting on nests and many of the migrants have probably reached their summertime destinations. The variety of species today was good and we had some good looks at birds like the Northern Harrier, Merlin and immature Bald Eagle and Red-shouldered Hawk. A number of the birds counted today were close enough to age and a number of them were younger birds. It was a little surprising to see a few of these birds quite high above given the wind speeds.
Non-raptor Observations:I'm still waiting for a few other species to add to our seasonal list. This morning was fairly quiet again. Scarlet Tanagers, which nest here were singing from the oaks around the summit along with a couple of warblers. Bird song sure is nice but it feels more like mid summer levels of activity and not warbler/passerine migration season.
Predictions:Rain during the overnight might continue into the morning hours but the chance is below 40 percent. A little dry spell midday before another chance of rain in the afternoon. Temps should be warm and in the 60's. Winds look about the same, from the S and SSE but lighter than today. Rain could make things interesting and depending on when it starts maybe we get a few new species for the season.
Report submitted by Jeannette Lovitch (
freeportwildbird@yahoo.com)
Bradbury Mountain State Park information may be found at:
www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com/bradbury-mountain-hawkwatchMore information at
hawkcount.org: [
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