Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 10, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 2 2 Osprey 0 9 9 Bald Eagle 0 15 15 Northern Harrier 5 55 55 Sharp-shinned Hawk 122 303 303 Cooper's Hawk 0 3 3 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 14 224 224 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 56 56 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 2 38 38 Merlin 0 2 2 Peregrine Falcon 0 3 3 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 144 710 710 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Frank Kitakis, Mark Hainen Visitors: Johannes from Ann Arbor paid an always welcome visit. We did manage to show some sharp-shins to some visitors to the park that were not there for hawk watching. Weather: A return to summerlike conditions with temps in the eighties. We were saved from most of the discomfort by a wind blowing off the lake. Although the weather channels were saying S, at least in our little corner of the world it was SE and we were thankful. Disturbed weather passed well to the NW of us but it may find us tomorrow. Barometer stayed up near 30.2 most of the day tailing off slightly at day's end. Raptor Observations: I wasn't sure what to expect today but the sharp-shinned hawks came through with over 120 birds. Not too much else was visible although the wind was fairly strong pushing birds to the north. Even the sharpies wer crabbing into wind. The few broad-winged hawks that we saw were well off the north and partially obscured in the hazy conditions. We did have our first "gray ghost" male northern harrier, one of five one the day. Non-raptor Observations: It was a very slow day for the first couple of hours today, including monarch butterflies, who had a spectacular day yesterday. It was back to normal today with 2-300 hundred. Predictions: A day fit for man nor beast if the forecast is correct. Story weather with an east/west front stalling over us. Thunderstorms and rain, possibly heavy, are predicted. If the storms are far enough apart we may get some birds making use of the surrounding turbulence to hitch a free ride on the winds. Mostly sharpies and harriers if that is the case. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jessica Fletcher (jessica_fletcher@fws.gov) 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