Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 10, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 12 683 72176 Osprey 0 0 31 Bald Eagle 0 4 59 Northern Harrier 1 26 410 Sharp-shinned Hawk 9 81 5002 Cooper's Hawk 4 17 87 Northern Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 85 691 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 16407 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 79 482 3096 Rough-legged Hawk 1 4 12 Golden Eagle 4 26 44 American Kestrel 0 2 641 Merlin 0 5 58 Peregrine Falcon 0 2 96 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: 111 1417 98815 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Alex Gilford, 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: One of the pleasures of spending the fall months outside is that you are an active observer of the myriad facets of weather in action. Today was a day of transition with the barometer dropping as a low pressure front approaches with rain just behind it later tonight. The southern winds were a little stronger today as we approach an interface of air masses, meeting in a battle for supremacy. Spoiler alert, the high always wins. We were fortunate to watch a menagerie of strange and diverse clouds march through the sky, not always successful in passing through in the original shape they entered our arena. There was a lot going on in the afternoon hours in the sky, the birds, not so much. In the morning hours, we were faced with very hazy conditions as the fetch of the wind caused the evaporation of the lake to build up in the direction that the birds were flying. It was like looking though a wet shower door to try and determine species of bird today. We were all in danger of developing “scope eye”, an affliction in which you resemble Marty (What hump?)Feldman from straining too hard to peer through the haze. Raptor Observations: Today was another day of two halves with a movement of birds in the morning hours but a sudden and abrupt end in the afternoon hours. This has been a common theme this week. There was a slight change in direction of the wind which cleared the haze but there was nothing to look at after that. We ended with 12 turkey vultures on the day. One harrier was seen passing through. Nine sharp-shins chose this day to pass over.Four Cooper’s hawks joined in. Only one red-shouldered hawk could be spotted but seventy nine red-tails, at first glided through, but later as the winds increased, they looked like sharpies in high winds having to fight their way through with trimmed wings. Four golden eagles passed through with most of them giving us good looks. One light morph rough-legged hawk passed through to the south of us, one of the few that passed on our right side in the fresh southern winds that pushed the birds to the north. Non-raptor Observations: Some duck migration was seen off to the east with long strings flying south. A few Bonaparte’s gulls kept us sporadic company during the day. A few great blue herons were seen in migratory flights in the morning hours. Swallows were observed but in small numbers, whether this means they have left or merely found more fertile feeding areas is unknown. We had a few flights of “blackbirds” in the morning hours but not of significant numbers. A bluebird was heard but not seen flying overhead. Predictions: Tomorrow has some potential for our site with the barometer rising and the skies clearing about the time as the watch begins, if, and that’s a big if, the timing of the forecast is correct. The winds should be WNW starting around 10 mph and dropping slightly though the day. Hopefully, this will be a productive wind and not too strong. The winds are scheduled to drop on Wednesday and turn easterly so that is a day that will have to be seen to see what happens. This high pressure should last for about three days with another possibly good day on Friday with WNW winds again. ======================================================================== 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