Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 29, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 306 1628 1628 Osprey 2 23 23 Bald Eagle 0 25 25 Northern Harrier 4 118 118 Sharp-shinned Hawk 159 1919 1919 Cooper's Hawk 1 9 9 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 2 2 Broad-winged Hawk 17 15645 15645 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 3 124 124 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 17 351 351 Merlin 1 18 18 Peregrine Falcon 5 23 23 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 515 19886 19886 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Alex Gilford, 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: It was the sunniest of times; it was the cloudiest of times. With apologies to Mr. Dickens, it was a tale of two days. Despite reports of fog in the local area, the morning was quite sunny, and being sheltered from the wind it was almost balmy in our little plot. The only clouds were burgeoning cumulus clouds over the lake, brightly lit in brilliant white tones, growing larger by the minute. Winds were fairly steady from the WSW growing a little during the mid-morning hours and giving ample lift to those birds that wished to fly. The barometer fell about a tenth from a starting point of 29.85”. The sharpest drop came as the clouds filled in at different levels, high wispy cirrus showing through gaps in the lower clouds at first but eventually the solid gray overwhelmed the white patches. Clothing layers that were shed early were replaced by day’s end with the loss of the sun’s warmth. Raptor Observations: The day had a fairly steady stream of raptors. Sharp-shins were the constant with one hundred fifty nine counted over the hours. Two Cooper’s hawks completed the accipiter contingent. Two ospreys were noted. Four widely spaced harriers flopped their way through. Three red-tailed hawks represented the buteos but were outgunned by seventeen broad-wings that meandered through. It was another fairly good day for falcons with one merlin, seventeen kestrels and five peregrine falcons slipping through the wind. Non-raptor Observations: The skies were filled with blue jays again early in the morning hours. There were some late flocks and they may have been on the move throughout the day but out of our sight. This has been a mass migration over a couple of weeks now and it has been truly impressive to see. The numbers exceed our normal broad-winged numbers buy a factor of seven so far. The gulls and swallows were back in the neighborhood today and at times made finding sharpies more difficult as they flew interference in front of approaching raptors. The blue jays also contributed to this problem as at rare times they resemble sharpies and their sheer numbers were a challenge to sort through. A pair of belted kingfishers raced back and forth engaged in some sort of squabble but once again managing to elude my lens. Predictions: Tomorrow has rain in the prediction but rain has a way of disappearing at it approaches us. The barometer will fall and winds will grow to almost 20mph from our least favorite direction SW. This does not look good on paper but only time will tell. Thursday may be more of the same but on a rising barometer. The good thing is that it sets up a “good “ Friday on paper with a rising barometer and winds from a favorable direction (NW). ======================================================================== 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