Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 28, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 1070 72585 Osprey 0 0 31 Bald Eagle 0 17 72 Northern Harrier 1 37 421 Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 128 5049 Cooper's Hawk 1 35 105 Northern Goshawk 0 1 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 206 817 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 16407 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 21 1613 4231 Rough-legged Hawk 1 19 27 Golden Eagle 0 37 55 American Kestrel 0 2 641 Merlin 2 14 67 Peregrine Falcon 0 8 102 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 2 Unknown Falcon 0 0 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 1 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 31 3187 100616 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Rosemary Brady Visitors: While Lake Erie Metropark is currently open to the public, for the safety of our counter and volunteers we encourage visitors to follow along with the count virtually on HawkCount.org, or our Detroit River Hawk Watch Facebook page. There will be daily updates and photographs. If you do decide to join us in person, please help the counter and volunteers to follow their mandated safety protocols by refraining from approaching them. Please follow the recommended Covid 19 procedures by wearing a mask and maintaining a safe social distance. Thanking you in advance for your cooperation. Stay safe! Weather: Here comes the sun, here comes the sun….in fact, we had nothing but sun today. A great blue dome greeted us and the sun made short work of the early morning frost on the grass and furniture at the site. Winds started in the W at about six mph and waffled around a little before taking on a more southern flavor but retaining the western element at WSW, growing modestly throughout the day. These winds were not our favorite winds but it didn’t seem to be a strong moving day for the raptors anyway. The barometer dropped during the day from a starting point of 30.18”, ending at 30.11” as the low pressure with the snow and rain that is predicted is already affecting the atmosphere. The temperatures reflected the wind’s direction and rose to the high forties. Raptor Observations: Raptors be like meh. Although the day started with a bang as our first bird was a very light morph rough- legged hawk, it failed to follow up with any meaningful movement. We had one northern harrier today. Three sharp-shinned hawks were noted. One Cooper’s hawk was counted. Two red-shouldered hawks were spotted, one by noticing that a gull on the water was turning an eye skyward, observed by Mr. X. Two merlins were seen racing through today; better get the bins on those falcons quickly. Red-tails meandered through in no real hurry to move on these winds but we totaled twenty one at the end of day. Non-raptor Observations: The big movers on the day were the ducks seen in long strings and V’s flying in huge flights off in the distance. To truly appreciate the magnitude of migration you need to witness these flights. The local gulls were busy keeping an eye on the weekend fishermen and watching for discards. Bonaparte’s gulls were also busy today. Some small flocks of passerines were observed flying by, but our looks at these birds are not good with poor lighting and angles so we have trouble ID’ing them. Predictions: We will start with a couple of hours of sunlight tomorrow but clouds will fill in and the barometer will drop throughout the day. Winds will continue from the SW blowing up to 10 mph and shifting slightly to SSW later in the day. Given that today was not special and tomorrow looks to have worse weather, I would not expect great things but that’s why we play the game. It may be our last day so we will have fingers crossed that despite the negative indicators, good things will happen. ======================================================================== 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: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=285