Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 05, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 9 9 Osprey 0 2 2 Bald Eagle 3 7 7 Northern Harrier 4 4 4 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 3 3 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 0 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 2 2 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 6 7 7 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 3 12 12 Merlin 0 0 0 Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 1 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 17 47 47 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Rosemary Brady 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: A very dark gray sky met us this morning with brisk temps in the 50’s, it was only the glint of a golden lining off in the distant east that assured us that the sun had indeed risen two hours before. The day progressed with alternate periods of cloud and sun requiring occasional wardrobe adjustments as the sun played hide and seek and the clouds seemed unable to make up their mind as to their intent: white and puffy at times, purple and threatening at others. The barometer was steady at 30.2” until the last hours of the watch when it dropped as the skies thickened and darkened. The wind turbines in Canada were not stirring during the first hours but eventually they responded to a rising breeze. Later in the day, the winds aloft seemed to be strong and from a different direction than those at ground level, neither seemed to match the forecast WSW very well. Raptor Observations: We had a better day today with birds that seemed to have migration on their mind and nothing else, flying in straight lines in the correct direction. The birds that came seemed to be concentrated in a couple of short time periods. That left long periods of no birds as we have become accustomed to this year so far. We counted three bald eagles, six red-tails, and three kestrels. We poached four harriers, including one gray ghost, from our friends at Holiday Beach today. They usually are located in the favored route for that species. It was good to see them again as they are the first we have had this year. We also had one unidentified buteo that was lost in the haze and we could not determine whether it was a red-tail or a broad-winged hawk. It went into a long glide that both species do, giving us little to go on with a distant, hazy, profile shot. Non-raptor Observations: The gulls were plentiful today, both in kettles and “migrating” back and forth to better feeding grounds as they are wont to do. We did see a couple of flights of yellowlegs and at the end of the day a single pectoral sandpiper landed on the floating vegetation joining a yellowlegs for a few moments. I’m not sure if there was pigeon race today but we saw a few flocks in the morning. A few hummingbirds were observed racing by. The Caspian terns were on the other side of the channel for the most part. Three blue-winged teal sped by in the morning. The mixed swallows, swifts and martins continued their relentless quest to rid the skies of insects. Predictions: Tomorrow looks to have increasing cloudiness with steadily rising winds from the SSE as the weather will threaten thunderstorms on Monday morning. The barometer should fall sharply as the morning progresses. Whether any birds choose to fly into this low pressure system is up to them but they generally try to avoid stormy weather so it may be another long day for the counters. ======================================================================== 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: http://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=285