Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 23, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 1 1070 72585 Osprey 0 0 31 Bald Eagle 0 16 71 Northern Harrier 3 36 420 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 122 5043 Cooper's Hawk 2 33 103 Northern Goshawk 0 1 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 5 201 812 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 16407 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 50 1551 4169 Rough-legged Hawk 0 13 21 Golden Eagle 0 37 55 American Kestrel 0 2 641 Merlin 0 9 62 Peregrine Falcon 0 8 102 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 2 Unknown Falcon 0 0 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 1 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 63 3099 100528 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 0 hours Official Counter: Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, 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 solid cloud deck greeted us this morning as the residual wet snow from yesterday’s precipitation was fast melting on the grass. The winds were pushing from a W changing to WNW direction all day and soon the solid deck was replaced by a fractured cumulus layer that nearly cleared to solid cerulean blue. Alas, this was not to last as larger cumulus clouds, eventually with dark gray bottoms began to fill in. It seemed that we had some increased raptor movement when the sky was cleared but it wasn’t by much. The barometer was near steady all day at 30.24” barely moving a hundredth or two. Winds grew to almost fifteen mph at one point but it fell soon after. This may have been a little too strong for our site and we may have lost birds because of it. Raptor Observations: We had sporadic movement today with small groups of buteos passing through, having to work with their wings to move into a headwind. Red-tails were flapping more than usual, at times resembling red-shoulders who resembled sharpies at times with their frequent flapping and gliding. The red-tails led the way with fifty of their species working their way south. Red-shoulders had one tenth of that number at five birds. Two Cooper’s hawks flew through along with two sharp-shins representing the accipiters. Three northern harriers pumped their way through. Only one turkey vulture with a damaged wing flew through today. Non-raptor Observations: Ducks could be seen migrating in the distance today. Two small flights of tundra swans were seen early in the day. A common loon was observed flying by. A single cormorant was seen today, probably looking for his departed companions. A pair of massive gullnadoes (gull tornadoes), as we are calling them, formed out by the stacks making us wonder what the attraction was as they swirled in huge kettles. Predictions: Half a day, half a day, half a day tomorrow; with apologies to Tennyson, it looks like rain may take its toll in the next couple of days. We should have full cloud cover tomorrow morning and a falling barometer with rain forecast to start in the early afternoon hours. We will see how this plays out. Winds should be from the SE and growing as the day progresses. Not a forecast that inspires confidence. ======================================================================== 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: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=285