Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 07, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 645 19912 20403 Osprey 0 2 32 Bald Eagle 0 1 52 Northern Harrier 0 28 202 Sharp-shinned Hawk 131 727 2805 Cooper's Hawk 3 21 32 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 3 3 Broad-winged Hawk 1 532 64330 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 4 62 177 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 0 63 636 Merlin 0 2 18 Peregrine Falcon 2 15 30 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: 786 21368 88721 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 6.25 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Mark Hainen, Patrick Mulawa, Rosemary Brady Visitors: We had some visitors today but apart from the local eagles up in pairs and a few sharpies that flew directly over the site there was little to see. Weather: One of the things that makes sitting outside all day searching the sky so interesting is the constantly changing tableau of cloud formations and blue skies that never seem to linger for long. Today was the opposite as we watched the blue sky behind a well defined line of cloud just the the NW of us take four hours to reach our location. The winds were fairly easy out of the west all day with none of the northerly element we were hoping for. Barometer rose slightly from a normal average pressure. Raptor Observations: Today was a relatively slow day for us with little in the way of buteos to process. Turkey vultures took their time to get going but ended up with 645 on the day. Sharp-shins came throughout the day but usually minutes apart and ended up with 130+. 2 peregrines provided their usual burst of excitement. 4 Red-tails were seen but we hoped for more. We did get one broad-winged hawk and at this time of the season we are looking to hang the Caboose Bird title on the last broad-wing of the season. I suspect there will be more but not too many. Non-raptor Observations: We are beginning to think we are in some kind of disturbance in the time-space continuum. We had a B-25 fly over us a few days ago and today it was a B-17, it's four engines sounding like they are straining to stay aloft. Definitely a plane you hear coming. Predictions: We have gentle winds from the northeast going to east tomorrow with a high barometer. These are similar conditions to what brought us 35K broadwings earlier in September. I hope that the buteos will be inspired to move as they certainly took the day off today. AJS ======================================================================== 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