Fort Smallwood Park (13 Apr 2026) 406 Raptors

[SUE RICCIARDI]

Fort Smallwood Park

Pasadena, Maryland, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 13, 2026
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	6	36	95
Turkey Vulture	173	1750	7424
Osprey	3	78	194
Bald Eagle	2	21	67
Northern Harrier	6	27	33
Sharp-shinned Hawk	139	238	286
Cooper's Hawk	27	60	109
American Goshawk	0	0	0
Red-shouldered Hawk	1	18	256
Broad-winged Hawk	24	28	28
Red-tailed Hawk	7	19	77
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	10	50	85
Merlin	2	15	16
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Accipitrine	0	2	4
Unknown Buteo	0	2	6
Unknown Falcon	3	6	7
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	3	7	8
Swallow-tailed Kite	0	1	1
Total:	406	2358	8696

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

Weather:
Mostly cloudy with a shower for about ten minutes around 1 pm daylight time; 66-80 degrees; fair visibility becoming good; winds moderately strong and southwesterly 9-17 mph gusting to 30 mph.

Raptor Observations:
Great day with almost two-thirds of the flight coming after the shower, in the last three hours of the count. Twelve species with good showings of Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks. Finally, more Broad-wings. The sharpie flight almost doubled the seasonal count thus far and they were all over the sky. Many of the raptors were high, but adequate cloud cover gave us a chance to see them.

Non-raptor Observations:
Over 750 Blue Jays; over 230 Tree Swallows

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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.