Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 22, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 60869 62657 Osprey 0 9 31 Bald Eagle 0 30 55 Northern Harrier 2 207 338 Sharp-shinned Hawk 4 2821 4777 Cooper's Hawk 0 50 60 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 4 149 151 Broad-winged Hawk 0 675 16405 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 877 1002 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 0 8 8 American Kestrel 0 250 637 Merlin 0 27 46 Peregrine Falcon 0 60 88 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 2 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 10 66035 86259 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 4 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Sam Heilman 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: And then the rains came with accompanying sturm and drang. As predicted, the thunderstorms and rains passed through our area in the morning hours ceasing the actual rainfall at the starting hour of the watch. We started an hour later to allow the Canadian peninsular to clear but it was of little use since the traffic was almost nonexistent. The barometer was 30.2” but fell about a tenth while we were there. It should continue to drop as more thunderstorms are on the way tomorrow night. We have had a rollercoaster ride with the weather the last few days; quick changes of weather with rain on nearly a daily basis occurring during high pressure readings are a little odd. Today the winds were from mostly the eastern direction shifting slightly to ENE and diminishing as the day progressed. Unfortunately the lingering clouds from the rain lingered and even thickened with fog like effects. It was akin to sitting in your shower trying to look though a white shower curtain. The raptors apparently felt the same way. Raptor Observations: We had a total of eight birds today. Two sharpies fought the fog and wind to pass through but I suspect they were lost. We also saw four red-shouldered hawks. The last time we had similar conditions just after a rain storm had blown through, the red-shoulders seemed to be the early movers that day. We also saw two harriers. As for turkey vultures, nothing, falcons, nothing; nothing was the operative word today. The local eagles were active but we saw nothing of any migrating eagles, nothing. Non-raptor Observations: Today was a day for the swallows to fill the sky in front of us. Although it was tough to imagine insects filling the sky above us, they were apparently up there in substantial numbers. At one time, the swallows assembled into a virtual murmuration ball in front of us. We did see some murmurations of starlings over Canada in the mist and lately we have been seeing some large congregations at our end of the cove. An immature Bonaparte’s gull was noted at the boat launch. Predictions: It’s hard to be optimistic about tomorrow looking at the predictions. The barometer will be dropping and winds will be increasing with gusto from the SW up to 16 mph. Hmmm, not good. Afternoon thunderstorms are predicted, possibly arriving as early as 1300. The temperature, with the help of the SW winds, will rise into the seventies, but this will be short lived since the highs should be in the forties the next day. Although we may see some birds it’s hard to predict what they may be with this forecast. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Kevin Georg (kevin.l.georg@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