Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 15, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 685 30273 30764 Osprey 0 5 35 Bald Eagle 0 9 60 Northern Harrier 3 41 215 Sharp-shinned Hawk 32 996 3074 Cooper's Hawk 0 39 50 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 4 36 36 Broad-winged Hawk 0 538 64336 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 8 177 292 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 3 3 American Kestrel 7 83 656 Merlin 1 5 21 Peregrine Falcon 2 23 38 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 742 32228 99581 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Mark Hainen, Mark. Hainen, Rosemary Brady, Sam Heilman, Sam. Heilman Visitors: Mr Murphy came by but visitors were scarce today. Weather: With fresh southern winds blowing, from which we are sheltered, we had a fairly pleasant day watching the transition from high cirrus clouds in all their permutations (mare's tails and mackerel sky) to apparent virga clouds with apparent rain falling but never reaching the ground. Barometer fell two tenths during the day. Interesting weather as rain is approaching but not our most productive day. Raptor Observations: Turkey vultures were playing hide and seek today as the winds pushed them north near the limits of our visibility. 685 were counted but some may have sneaked by. 32 sharp-shins were spotted taking a wild ride in the winds. 3 harriers dared to cross, along with a falcon hat trick of 1 merlin, 2 peregrines and 7 kestrels. We did finally have some buteos with 8 red-tails and 4 red-shoulders. These birds came in the afternoon when the winds went a little more SSE. Non-raptor Observations: We did see a loon fly over this morning. A very distinctive bird in flight with its legs trailing behind. A Bonaparte's gull came by late in the afternoon and took up station on one of the nearby buoys. A few monarchs are still looking for a taste of Mexican food. Predictions: Tomorrow does not look good with a rain system going through tonight or in the early morning hours. With strong winds from the west, temps will be less warm than we would prefer and the barometer will be very low during the watch hours. The silver lining is that after this passes we should have northern winds and a rising barometer. There might be a chance of late afternoon movement if the system moves through quickly. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jerry Jourdan (jerry.jourdan@gmail.com) Detroit River Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://www.detroitriverhawkwatch.org More site information at hawkcount.org: http://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=285 Count data submitted via Dunkadoo - Project info at: https://dunkadoo.org/explore/detroit-river-international-wildlife-refuge/detroit-river-hawk-watch-fall-2019