Most of my morning yesterday was spent in the Bowdoin Library (but I did hear my first Fish Crow of the spring out the window!), but I did visit the mouth of the Abbagadaset River in Bowdoinham beforehand. The ice is finally out here, and the duck numbers are rapidly increasing:
471 American Black Duck
236 Mallard
(with hybrids thereof included in these totals.)
112 Green-winged Teal
55 Canada Goose
53 Common Merganser
9 Ring-necked Duck
7 Northern Pintail
6 Common Goldeneye
2 American Wigeon (one pair)
1 drake Barrow’s Goldeneye
Also: 5 Double-crested Cormorants, 3-4 Bald Eagles, and 1 male Northern Harrier.

Today, Jeannette and I began the day taking Sasha for a run on Pine Point Beach. That was our excuse, anyway, for heading down to Scarborough to visit Prout’s Pond again! I wanted to study the Redhead hybrid some more, and hopefully get some pictures. Both missions accomplished, and I will post photos – and some photos sent to me as well – here tomorrow. A quick stop at Dunstan Landing produced my first Greater Yellowlegs of the spring.

Today’s duck counts from Prout’s Pond:
55 Ring-necked Duck
32 Common Merganser
8 American Black Duck
5 Red-breasted Merganser
5 Hooded Merganser
3 Lesser Scaup
1 REDHEAD X AYTHYA SP. hybrid
1 Greater Scaup
Plus: 2 Double-crested Cormorants, 1 Pied-billed Grebes, 7 American Tree Sparrows, and 1 American Kestrel.

Then, it was up to the hawkwatch. At least the winds weren’t too strong today. Plus, the sun made a few brief appearances, but at least there was enough insolation to get some weak thermals going. With the weather finally less-than-terrible for raptor migration, there were more than a few birds on the move today. When I left at 2:15, we had 32 migrants – more than ½ the total of the previous 7 days! An immature Red-shouldered Hawk, a pair of Hooded Mergansers, and 12 Horned Larks were migratory highlights, while I was also treated to a display flight from a local Red-shoulder.

Now, here’s the Bradbury Mountain Week 3 Update.

It was a brutal week, with a snowstorm followed by persistent west and northwest winds. We lost 2 1/3 days to snow, and therefore the count was covered for only 37.5 hours this week (out of a possible 56 hours). The highlight was a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK on 4/6.

The following totals are for Week 3 (Tuesday, April 3 through Monday, April 9). The First number is this week’s tally, the second number is the season-to-date total.

BLACK VULTURE: 0, 1
Turkey Vulture: 2, 69
Osprey: 10, 16
Bald Eagle: 2, 29
Northern Harrier: 8, 13
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 12, 42
Cooper’s Hawk: 1, 20
Northern Goshawk: 1, 4
Red-shouldered Hawk: 1, 22
Broad-winged Hawk: 0, 0
Red-tailed Hawk: 13, 160
Rough-legged Hawk: 1, 3
American Kestrel: 3, 27
Merlin: 0, 6
Peregrine Falcon: 0, 1
Unidentified: 1, 9

Total, Week 3: 55
Total, Season to Date: 422