Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 18, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 731 45365 47151 Osprey 0 9 32 Bald Eagle 0 28 53 Northern Harrier 0 192 323 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 2652 4605 Cooper's Hawk 0 41 50 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 92 94 Broad-winged Hawk 0 677 16407 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 6 647 772 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 0 4 4 American Kestrel 0 248 635 Merlin 0 23 42 Peregrine Falcon 0 58 86 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: 738 50039 70258 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 11:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 4 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood 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: If you placed your bets on a half day of rain on Draft Kings or FanDuel, collect your winnings. It rained at our location and also in the Canadian territory that the birds must pass through to reach us. The rain passed around midday and we assumed the position. The sky was an interesting patchwork of four seasons worth of clouds ranging from high mackerel skies to deep purple hues depending on where you looked. One of the days that makes Michigan’s fall season special. Eventually the clouds cleared, leaving us with mostly sunny skies; inviting to people but not to birds, as it was merely lipstick on a pig. Another front, bearing more rain, was approaching from the west covering a large percentage of the state. The barometer was relatively high with a reading of 30.2”, dropping most of a tenth as the afternoon progressed. The winds were strong from a direction barely W of S, pushing Lake Erie towards the shores downwind and creating lakeshore flood warnings. The winds were up in the twenty mile per hour range and the white horses danced on top of the waves. Raptor Observations: Although the shortened day was scenic in one of those classic fall days of turbulent transition, the raptors voted with their wings and stayed put. The only real evidence of migration at the beginning of the watch and for the following hour or two, were the turkey vultures. We think may have been birds that roosted overnight nearby. We ended with eight hundred and three total for the afternoon. We did see one sharp-shinned hawk but were expecting to see more. The rain may have interrupted the pipeline. We counted six red-tailed hawks, but there were widespread and riding the winds in a poorly defined flight line, otherwise, squadoosh. It is possible that birds were moving but simply blown out of our sight. Non-raptor Observations: The cormorants and gulls were putting on a show today out in front of us; the swimming cormorants in a large group, showing only their necks and heads, and the gulls flying over them ready to steal their catch. This is a scene often repeated in front of us, sometimes near and sometimes far away. The swallows were present in large numbers for the first couple of hours but seemed to move on by day’s end. Our local eagles were also present putting on a show for us today, one of them plucking a fish from the water by the entrance buoys. Predictions: Another confusing day tomorrow with high pressure and the possibility of rain at the same time; lots of cloud cover but a rising barometer with good winds from the NNW in the early morning hours and NE during the watch. There is a 74% chance of rain around 7 p.m. The rest of the week seems unsettled with chances of precipitation through most of the week and beyond. The winds will be moderate tomorrow if the forecast holds; a couple of the predictors look good but the showers seem out of place. It will be interesting to see what transpires tomorrow as the forecast shows contradictory elements. ======================================================================== 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