Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 22, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 73 4084 52292 Osprey 0 0 35 Bald Eagle 1 16 94 Northern Harrier 3 77 342 Sharp-shinned Hawk 9 260 4117 Cooper's Hawk 1 34 117 Northern Goshawk 0 1 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 16 552 747 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 64336 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 130 3929 4787 Rough-legged Hawk 1 11 12 Golden Eagle 3 48 52 American Kestrel 0 4 702 Merlin 0 1 32 Peregrine Falcon 0 6 52 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: 237 9023 127720 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Frank Kitakis, John Elliot, Rosemary Brady Visitors: Only the hardcore volunteers came out today. Thanks to all for toughing it out and doing a great job. Weather: The forecasted morning sunshine arrived unfashionably late. It was the mid-afternoon hours when the solid cloud deck began to fracture and allow fissures where blue could peek through. The NW wind failed to ease in any appreciable manner during the day keeping the participants chilled and beyond help when the sunlight finally brought a little warmth to the site. Warmth being a relative term of course, the temps stayed in the 30’s and the wind kept the real feel temps lower. The barometer settled at 30.12” Hg and did not budge. Raptor Observations: The day seemed to have good technical indicators and the movement was there, although the strong winds may have affected the numbers we saw at our site. Buteos were the stars today with 130 red-tails leading the way. Red-shoulders were also on the move with 16. Joining the buteo ranks was 1 light-morph rough-legged hawk. There are still some turkey vultures moving south from Canada and 73 showed us their heels today. Joining the exodus were 9 sharp-shins and 1 Cooper's hawk. 3 harriers dihedraled by and last, but not least, 3 golden eagles made our day. Non-raptor Observations: 75 sandhill cranes were spotted in three flights. Our Bonaparte’s gull population swelled to approximately 60 birds today but most of them rode out the wind on the waves. Lots of waterfowl were seen flying by as the wind seemed to bring their flight line closer to us. Tree swallows are still here but in small numbers. Predictions: Increasing cloud cover is predicted. I'm sure that will arrive on time. The barometer is going to fall but not drastically. Winds are from the SW but only at 4 mph. Not good signs but possibly not enough to dissuade the buteos and eagles from moving by us.Temps will remain in the high 30's again but with less wind it may be more tolerable. ======================================================================== 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