Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 21, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 877 60869 62657 Osprey 0 9 31 Bald Eagle 1 30 55 Northern Harrier 10 205 336 Sharp-shinned Hawk 166 2817 4773 Cooper's Hawk 3 50 60 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 10 145 147 Broad-winged Hawk 0 675 16405 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 38 877 1002 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 3 8 8 American Kestrel 1 250 637 Merlin 4 27 46 Peregrine Falcon 1 60 88 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 2 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 1114 66025 86249 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: The day started with a hangover from the rain that passed through during the nighttime hours. Heavy clouds were reluctant to leave despite a hearty push from a westerly wind that was persistent and finally successful in breaking the gray monotone and clearing the sky. The barometer started at 30.1” and climbed as the day progressed but only a tenth to the plus side. The winds were in double digits most of the day and subsided in the afternoon hours to seven mph and shifting slightly to the WNW at day’s end. We ended with the coming rains again foretold by the high cirrus clouds and a slightly opaque sky with plenty of thin clouds giving us a nice background to find raptors that occasionally took the high road. Raptor Observations: The birds did not seem as enthusiastic to move today as yesterday. It was like Thanksgiving travel at the airport yesterday, today was nothing close to that. The turkey vultures were slow to start and slow to assemble in any kind of large groups and we finished with a total of eight hundred and seventy seven, a case of how far the mighty have fallen from the 14K+ of yesterday. The strong west wind into which the birds had to fly seemed to slow most movement today at our site. One bald eagle was seen up at nosebleed heights passing over. The falcons were all present in low numbers with one kestrel, four merlins and one peregrine making the count. Ten harriers were noted rowing through. The buteos were present but still seemed reluctant to move with ten red-shoulders and thirty eight red-tails. The accipiters seemed to relish the windy resistance and came in moderately strong numbers including one hundred and sixty six sharp-shins and three Cooper’s hawks. They seemed least affected by the hangover from the rain but were slow to start as well. The day was perhaps saved from mediocrity by the appearance of three golden eagles that are the diamonds in the rough at this time of year. Non-raptor Observations: Swallows were the bird of the hour early in the day. Hundreds of them filled the sky in search of, to us, invisible prey. We must have depleted the supply of crows yesterday since they were present only occasionally in small numbers today. The common terns were present today roosting on the base on one of the entrance buoys to the boat launch channel. Predictions: Tomorrow is another tricky day to predict with overnight rains predicted with a high probability of them actually occurring but with a clearing at the start of the normal time we start the watch. Sometimes these predictions are off by a few hours so it remains to be seen whether we will start on time. The other factor that may affect the movement is that the barometer will be dropping as another rain system approaches for Friday. The winds should be favorable tomorrow but not all the signs are positive so pick your favorite indicators and place your bets. ======================================================================== 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