Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 27, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 53 46309 46800 Osprey 0 5 35 Bald Eagle 0 26 77 Northern Harrier 0 85 259 Sharp-shinned Hawk 5 1668 3746 Cooper's Hawk 0 68 79 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 182 182 Broad-winged Hawk 0 538 64336 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 6 692 807 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 3 3 American Kestrel 0 124 697 Merlin 1 14 30 Peregrine Falcon 0 31 46 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: 65 49746 117099 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Jerry Jourdan, Mark Hainen, Raburn Howland, Rosemary Brady Visitors: We had hawk watching royalty at the site today with Bob Pettit of Holiday Beach Migration Observatory and Jim and Kathy Bricker of Mackinac Straits Hawk Watch. We had other visitors but unfortunately we had little to show them as it was just one of those days where the winds and other conditions conspired against us. Weather: The backside of the remains of Tropical Storm Olga proved to be less fruitful than the leading edge yesterday. Leaving plenty of overnight rain, the low departed with strong SW winds pushing scudding grey clouds to the NE. The scudding continued until the final hour when fenestration of the cloud cover finally allowed blue to show through. The barometer rose three tenths as high pressure began to fill in. Raptor Observations: Turkey vultures outnumbered the other birds, but at 53 total were not impressive. Red-tails were next with 6 birds and sharp-shins came in with 5 birds. 1 merlin represented for the falcons. When you spread those birds over 7 hours you can see we had to work pretty hard for them. Non-raptor Observations: A loon was spotted out on the lake and later flying over the tree line in a loony erratic manner. An adult Great black-backed gull was seen by Celeron Island. To close the day, eagle-eyed Don Sherwood spotted a common night hawk by the DTE stacks. This seems a little late for this bird but the late arriving sun highlighted its white wing bars perfectly. Predictions: Tomorrow will be a better looking day on the surface. The barometer will be in the go zone and sunny skies will greet us. The winds will still be from the southerly quarter however, but in a much less forceful manner. It will be interesting to see if that wind is enough to discourage the birds from moving. Hopefully not. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess (ajyes72@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