Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 26, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 755 67071 68859 Osprey 0 9 31 Bald Eagle 0 30 55 Northern Harrier 6 237 368 Sharp-shinned Hawk 7 2894 4850 Cooper's Hawk 1 53 63 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 140 391 393 Broad-winged Hawk 0 676 16406 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 385 1570 1695 Rough-legged Hawk 0 5 5 Golden Eagle 0 13 13 American Kestrel 0 252 639 Merlin 1 31 50 Peregrine Falcon 2 65 93 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 2 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 1 1 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 1297 73300 93524 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 7.5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood 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 day of two halves as far as the birds were concerned. The close, misty clouds of the morning hours were not to their liking at all. Mild winds from the NW did nothing to move the offending clouds but gradually the skies lightened so that we could see the solid cloud deck with some color streaking to make it a somewhat less monotone backdrop. The winds never really built any real strength but seemed to rise and fall ending from the NNW. Barometer showed a “fair” pressure of 30.1” and was steady. It was another dreary day to look at except for the afternoon in which we had little time to think about weather. Raptor Observations: A lone harrier was the only bird that we saw for over two hours. It seemed that we would not see much of anything but something changed and Holy Toledo, the birds were flying. The totals may not seem that impressive but since they all came in the afternoon it was a busy time. Turkey vultures were not as inclined to move today but we ended with seven hundred and seventy five. Harriers numbered six by day’s end. Only seven sharp-shins were noted along with one Cooper’s hawk. One merlin and two peregrines were observed to represent the falcons. The buteos were the stars of the day with one hundred forty five red-shoulders and three hundred eighty five red-tailed hawks. These birds came in kettles and we may have lost some to the north in the gloom as they seemed to be flying against the winds that normally push them to the south. Non-raptor Observations: A fairly slow day for non-raptors except for swallows who were busy all day. Lots of cormorants were busy too with the gull escorts flying overhead. We did see a small flight of goldeneyes fly by flashing their rapidly beating black and white wings. A few Bonaparte’s gulls were seen over the cormorants with the normal ringed-billed and herring gulls. Predictions: Again with the cloudy weather, tomorrow looks similar to today in some respects. Lots of clouds, let us hope they are not as wet as today’s early offerings, and relatively mild winds from the NW to start, shifting to a more westerly direction later on. A cold day but the milder winds may help to make it more tolerable. There is a slight chance of rain similar to today so history may repeat itself. The barometer should stay in the fair range above thirty but that seems to mean little lately as we have seen a fair amount of “high pressure” rain. Cautiously optimistic on bird movement since the winds are still acceptable but too cautious to commit after today’s odd happenings. ======================================================================== 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: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=285