Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 12, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 1455 27010 27501 Osprey 0 5 35 Bald Eagle 0 7 58 Northern Harrier 0 38 212 Sharp-shinned Hawk 14 862 2940 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 10 164 279 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 2 3 3 American Kestrel 2 72 645 Merlin 0 3 19 Peregrine Falcon 1 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: 1484 28790 96143 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7.5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Frank Kitakis, Mark Hainan, Mark Hainen, Patrick Mulawa, Rosemary Brady Visitors: Bill and Michelle paid a visit and Bill was disconsolate at, once again, missing his first golden eagle of the season. These are special moments to be treasured and his disappointment was profound:) Weather: A day that on the surface looked pleasant enough. Cool temperatures followed the rains of yesterday afternoon and evening and it was a perfect day for....college football. The persistent and strengthening SW winds did not bode well for raptor migration and the barometer actually fell a few hundredths throughout the day. Blues skies with scattered clouds but very scattered birds to match. Raptor Observations: Turkey vultures kept it interesting, golden eagles saved the day. Over 1400 TV's were seen on their lazy meandering way today. Although that may seem a large number we will probably see multiples of that on a good day. We had our second and third golden eagles float by in the distance. Our sharp-shinned total was only 14 today, which spread over 7 hours, well...you do the math. We did see one peregrine falcon sprinting into the woods to the southeast. Two kestrels completed the falcon count, they traveled as a pair in the afternoon. Non-raptor Observations: A slow day on the monarch and blue jay side too, nothing to speak of with either species. Although a slow day by our standards, the calming effect of watching turkey vultures float overhead kept us in the game. Seriously, doctors should prescribe two aspirin and watch TV's streaming for more ailments. Magic! Predictions: Tomorrow looks similar to today. Sunny, but the winds will be SW all day and the barometer will be dropping more than today. Not much to like there. Probably we will get some more TV's and some small numbers of other species but Wednesday and Thursday, after the next rain, look more promising. ======================================================================== 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