Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 10, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 105 3299 51507 Osprey 0 0 35 Bald Eagle 0 9 87 Northern Harrier 2 21 286 Sharp-shinned Hawk 22 167 4024 Cooper's Hawk 14 22 105 Northern Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 65 200 395 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 64336 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 112 884 1742 Rough-legged Hawk 2 5 6 Golden Eagle 1 12 16 American Kestrel 1 4 702 Merlin 0 1 32 Peregrine Falcon 0 5 51 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: 324 4629 123326 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 5.5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Raburn Howland, Rosemary Brady Visitors: We had some visitors today, Some regulars like Bill and Michelle and some casual visitors that were lucky to see a few birds flying low over the site. Always a pleasure when those that do not have binoculars can see the birds naked eye and believe that we are not pulling their leg. Weather: A day that started with overcast skies grew progressively darker through the early afternoon hours until the threatening look turned into reality with light rain shortening our day. The winds stated WSW and moved around the compass to what looked like NW at end of day. The barometer, despite the ugly look and close proximity of the leaden overcast sky was very stable at 30". A book that could not be judged by its cover indeed. Raptor Observations: A relatively slow start to the day actually turned out to have a lot of buteos on the move arriving in groups of nearly double digits at times. The turkey vultures could not even top the list today with 105 birds. The red-tails took the crown with 112, well done buteo jamaicensis! Red-shoulders came in with very respectable 65 souls. Our buteo list was completed with 2 rough-legged hawks of the light morph persuasion. The sharp-shins are still the most reliable bird throughout the season coming in with 22 birds and the Cooper's hawks made a strong move with 14 birds. 1 kestrel and 2 harriers were noted and last, but certainly not least, another golden eagle was notched on the belt. Non-raptor Observations: A slow day in the (Other) department as it was very cloudy and dark day. It was not the best day for observing birds under those conditions but we soldiered on. Predictions: Well, the barometer looks good and the wind is from the north but....and this is a big but, we have a winter weather advisory and, depending on which forecast you believe, 3-5 inches of the white stuff is expected. I am predicting snow geese and snow buntings tomorrow. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess (ajyes72@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