Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 13, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 603 27613 28104 Osprey 0 5 35 Bald Eagle 2 9 60 Northern Harrier 0 38 212 Sharp-shinned Hawk 25 887 2965 Cooper's Hawk 0 39 50 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 30 30 Broad-winged Hawk 0 538 64336 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 165 280 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 3 3 American Kestrel 1 73 646 Merlin 1 4 20 Peregrine Falcon 0 19 34 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: 633 29423 96776 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, L Kopack, Mark. Hainen, Raburn Howland, Rosemary Brady Visitors: You meet the nicest people at hawk watches. Even when there is little to see, people enjoy talking about the process with us and we enjoy talking with them. Weather: A day that on the surface appeared to be a lovely sunny fall day with blue skies and few clouds. Looks can be deceiving though as we had two strikes against us. One was a strong SSW wind that kept the trees dancing today, the other was a falling barometer that hit 29.78 before the day was out. Neither of these conditions seems conducive to bird migration. Raptor Observations: A dribble of turkey vultures from hour to hour kept us searching the skies with over 600 spotted. Sharp-shins added occasional spice with over 20 on the day. A couple of bald eagles flew high overhead. A Kestrel and one merlin made up the falcon contingent. One red-tail was counted but he may be a new local bird hanging out and kiting in the neighborhood. Non-raptor Observations: Some blue jays were counted this morning but the haze from the lake puts them at the limits of our visibility at times. Otherwise a slow day all around although the gulls were up in big numbers hawking insects and some of the swifts and swallows were working the sky. Predictions: After two days of less than sterling production I have to be optimistic about tomorrow. The barometer is predicted to rise tonight and should be OK tomorrow. The winds are coming from the west. This isn't our best wind but it's certainly better than the last two days. Should be a better day but rain is on the way again and the forecast after that clears looks better with northerly winds. ======================================================================== 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