Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 07, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 354 2185 50393 Osprey 0 0 35 Bald Eagle 0 9 87 Northern Harrier 3 15 280 Sharp-shinned Hawk 8 121 3978 Cooper's Hawk 3 6 89 Northern Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 18 93 288 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 64336 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 90 335 1193 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 2 Golden Eagle 1 6 10 American Kestrel 0 3 701 Merlin 0 1 32 Peregrine Falcon 0 3 49 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 477 2778 121475 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Mark Hainen, Raburn Howland, Rosemary Brady, Sam Heilman Visitors: Johannes and Dee toughed it out in the afternoon hours but it was grown up weather today, not for the faint of heart. Weather: Be careful what you wish for was the lesson for today. We finally got our northern winds but they were turbulent and seemed confused as the wind vane changed from NW to W and back again while rising and falling in intensity. Barometer stayed on the high side of normal but fell during the day. It was a goose-down day as the temps stayed in the 30's. Challenging to sit through all day. Skies cleared through the morning hours and the sun brought welcome but insufficient radiant heat. Raptor Observations: 354 turkey vultures led the way. Unfortunately, we did not get all the buteos that were out there due to the too strong winds but counted a respectable number of 90 red-tails and 18 red-shouldered hawks. Accipiters were light with only 8 sharpies and 3 Cooper's hawks. 3 harriers were counted and the first bird of the day was a golden eagle. Non-raptor Observations: Plenty of tundra swans flew overhead today whooping it up as they passed. Some Bonaparte's were also observed in the slip. Thousands of waterfowl were seen winging their way south. Predictions: Tomorrow holds promise. The winds are still from a favorable direction and the barometer will be dropping during the day but from a high position on the dial. The winds will ease a little in intensity so perhaps we will see the buteos a little better tomorrow. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess (ajyes72@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 Count data submitted via Dunkadoo - Project info at: https://dunkadoo.org/explore/detroit-river-international-wildlife-refuge/detroit-river-hawk-watch-fall-2019