Fort Smallwood Park (28 May 2026) 37 Raptors

[SUE RICCIARDI]

Fort Smallwood Park
Pasadena, Maryland, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 28, 2026
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	25	143
Turkey Vulture	34	737	9069
Osprey	0	20	242
Bald Eagle	1	33	122
Northern Harrier	0	2	49
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	58	649
Cooper's Hawk	0	25	194
American Goshawk	0	0	0
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	0	256
Broad-winged Hawk	0	35	118
Red-tailed Hawk	0	11	94
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	0	1	97
Merlin	0	2	33
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Accipitrine	0	1	10
Unknown Buteo	0	1	9
Unknown Falcon	0	0	7
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	2	16
Mississippi Kite	1	3	3
Swallow-tailed Kite	0	0	2
Total:	37	956	11113

Observation start time:	9:00 am Daylight Time
Observation end time:	5:00 pm
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Chris Reed, Hal Wierenga
Observers:	Cindy Godwin, Cristians Rivas, Hal Wierenga, Ralph Geuder, Steve Steimel, Sue Ricciardi

Weather:
Partly cloudy; 71-80 degrees; good visibility; winds mostly from the NNW 7-16 mph gusting to 25 mph.

Raptor Observations:
After 8 straight days of rain, showers, drizzle, fog and more rain and no counts, we finally had a fair-weather day today. We were ready for migrant raptors! However, it was a slow day, that is, until 3:24 pm daylight time, when our third Mississippi Kite of the season appeared. It first showed up on the far side of the pond flying north, most of the time giving good views. It appeared to be a first-year individual.

Non-raptor Observations:
An Eastern Bluebird bringing food to a hole in a tree right over our heads.

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Report submitted by Sue Ricciardi (susi...@comcast.net)
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]

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Site Description
Fort Smallwood Park is located on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay at the
mouth of the Patapsco River, 11 miles south of Baltimore, MD. Best winds are
from the southwest.