Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 29, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 1240 47717 48208 Osprey 0 5 35 Bald Eagle 1 27 78 Northern Harrier 0 91 265 Sharp-shinned Hawk 40 1779 3857 Cooper's Hawk 3 72 83 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 10 195 195 Broad-winged Hawk 0 538 64336 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 36 743 858 Rough-legged Hawk 1 1 1 Golden Eagle 0 4 4 American Kestrel 0 125 698 Merlin 0 15 31 Peregrine Falcon 0 31 46 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: 1331 51344 118697 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Mark Hainen, Rosemary Brady Visitors: We did have some visitors today and for the most part they came during the busy part of the day. It's always nice to introduce newcomers to migration on a day when there are birds to see. Weather: A clear blue sky to start, replaced in short order by a latticework of cloud showing deep blue though the gaps. The sky took on a more threatening tone as the day progressed with heavy grey clouds filling the sky and darkening the day. Winds from S to SW kept most of the birds to our north although the early hours were fairly busy. Barometer rose slightly from a start of 30.1. Possible rain was spotted out on the lake. Raptor Observations: Turkey vultures made up for a couple of slow days with 1240 birds. 40 sharp-shins escorted 3 Cooper's hawk for the accipiter contingent. 36 red-tails and 10 red-shoulders made up most of the buteos with one notable exception. Our first rough-legged hawk made a welcome appearance today, a light morph that escaped our cameras due to distance off. 1 interesting bald eagle in the last stages of transition to adult plumage was seen. Non-raptor Observations: A bright day to start that ended up with a rather gloomy look to it with numbers of birds dropping off big time late in the day. In the morning hours we saw flights of red-winged blackbirds and rusty blackbirds. Crows were on the move in moderate numbers early but tapered off. Ducks are still on the move far out over the lake. Predictions: As I write this, the next day's forecast looks like a rain-out. The radar does not really show where this possible two-day rain-out is coming from so we will see what we will see. ======================================================================== 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