Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 27, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 4199 52407 Osprey 0 0 35 Bald Eagle 0 21 99 Northern Harrier 0 81 346 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 281 4138 Cooper's Hawk 0 35 118 Northern Goshawk 0 1 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 562 757 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 64336 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 4003 4861 Rough-legged Hawk 0 12 13 Golden Eagle 0 54 58 American Kestrel 0 5 703 Merlin 0 2 33 Peregrine Falcon 0 7 53 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: 0 9263 127960 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 4 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Rosemary Brady Visitors: We had one visitor today, a wall of wind visited and we will not soon forget it. Weather: If you think of a low pressure area as a miniature –hurricane, then we had an experience near the eye today. The day started pleasantly enough with scattered haystack clouds allowing sun to filter through showing their highlights to best effect. The winds were very fresh out of the SW, in double digits mph-wise, but not unusually strong. The cloud formations were speeding by and giving us some very enjoyable well lit views. Off to the W the clouds darkened and threatened rain. A small amount started to fall and deciding that discretion was indeed the better part, we started to retreat to the safety of our trusty steeds. Before we could reach them a very loud roar started in the woods. For once in my life I heard the sound of an approaching train in the wind. A wall of wind hit us, doubling the wind speed in an instant and carrying all the leaves that had anything less than a very tenacious grip on their branch. It was an OMGosh moment. The barometer had been very low at 29.39” and after the all of wind hit it started to climb slightly. We were near the center of the low just to the N of us. The winds shifted more to the W a little when it hit. So did one of the flagpoles down the way, flying Old Glory at a jaunty angle from a newly bent pole. The rain did not last long, off to the W, a beautiful rainbow appeared for a few moments but the winds were moving things along very quickly. We did our due diligence and waited till the afternoon hours but this was the anti-wind for raptors to move on and so we called it early. Raptor Observations: We did get a chance to watch a few local raptors, (bald eagles and a redtail) fly today. It was a wild ride for all of them. The gulls were slip-sliding away in the wind as well. Some waterfowl were seen flying today. Non-raptor Observations: As a result of the lake being very rough today, we could see a lot of ducks had taken shelter in the shipping channel. As we watched the M/V Manitowoc pass downbound we could see thousands of ducks highlighted by the gray hull. The channels in the river were showing brown stains today from the overnight rains. It was easy to use the gulls as wind vanes today as they flew aligned into the wind. Predictions: Ah, the backside of a low. This can be fertile ground for migrating raptors. The technical indicators look good for the next two days. I think that there are still birds out there despite the recent drought. Perhaps the flight is over for the season but tomorrow should tell the tale. Hopefully, we are far enough away from the violent energy transfer between the passing low and the new high and have a smoother wind from the N for a couple of days. ======================================================================== 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