Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 16, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 10 139 139 Osprey 1 10 10 Bald Eagle 0 16 16 Northern Harrier 2 64 64 Sharp-shinned Hawk 100 625 625 Cooper's Hawk 0 1 1 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 1 1 Broad-winged Hawk 3 4474 4474 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 63 63 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 6 178 178 Merlin 3 7 7 Peregrine Falcon 0 3 3 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 127 5582 5582 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: We were greeted with a sky of smoky haze that the late, great, much beloved Detroit weatherman, Sonny Elliot, might have described as “Smaze”. It was a flat background for the birds to fly in and they avoided it at first. The wind was from the SW, and though mostly unfelt in our somewhat sheltered location, it was enough to impede the flight of those small birds that came bouncing through. The barometer hung around 30.1” most of the day and fell a tenth in the later hours. Although the sky blued up slightly during the later hours it was still an empty canvas for the most part. Raptor Observations: We had barren bookends on each end of the flight today. It took some time to get going for even the usual suspects in a SW winds. Surprisingly, we ended up with 100 sharp-shins on the day, helped by a forty hour in the middle of the day. It seemed that they were so widely spaced that we had fewer, but the clicker does not lie. Ten turkey vultures took their sweet time heading into an opposing wind. One osprey was noted. Only two harriers were spotted flying together today after seeing a large number yesterday. One juvenile red-tailed was noted in a day that was short on buteos, but that was expected. What was not expected was that we would see our first red-shouldered hawk today, a juvenile of the species. Only three broad-wings were seen in a very mini kettle. Six kestrels were counted and merlins were on the menu today with three seen racing through. Non-raptor Observations: We have been seeing movements of blue jays the last couple of days but not in huge numbers. The sky was generally clear of raptor and the gulls and swallows seemed to have moved to the wings of the stage. The pied-billed grebes were a little closer today in their relentless search for the slowest fish in the school. Cormorants were seen in greater numbers out in the lake’s open waters. The gulls do seem to be a bit more aggressive lately as we have seen them take note of passing raptors and occasionally giving chase. This may be the younger birds playing a game of tag just to pass the time. Predictions: Change is coming. The barometer should bottom out in the late night hours and start to rebound. There is a small chance of rain as the system changes to high pressure. The wind will have shifted to the NNE tomorrow at the start of the watch. The clouds should be clearing at that time also. We will have three days of high potential for broad-wing migration with winds in a favorable direction and a high barometer. There are never any guarantees with hawks since winds may be too strong for a particular location or other variables may affect the flight, but fingers crossed. Cheers! Andrew S. ======================================================================== 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