DRHW- Lake Erie Metropark Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 10, 2010 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 1460 67556 68927 Osprey 1 4 56 Bald Eagle 2 26 164 Northern Harrier 6 86 348 Sharp-shinned Hawk 216 836 5791 Cooper's Hawk 38 271 508 Northern Goshawk 0 2 4 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 75 80 Broad-winged Hawk 0 206 79569 Red-tailed Hawk 29 181 429 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 2 2 American Kestrel 7 86 659 Merlin 0 15 39 Peregrine Falcon 0 10 30 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 17 Prairie Falcon 0 1 3 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 5 Total: 1761 69357 156631 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Rob Payne Observers: Darlene Friedman, Rodney Laura Visitors: A good group of visitors came by today, as well as the usual cast of veteran spotters. Weather: A wonderful day for a tan today with temperatures topping off at 82f, and a little bit of cloud cover to help find the birds. Winds were variable with three major directional flips throughout the day, no major gusting occurred. Haze at the farther ends of our view made it hard to locate any of the large kettles we normally find out there. Raptor Observations: Slow, or at least it seemed slow. Many birds were probably missed in the haze, though there might not have been many raptors anyway. Only 1,460 Turkey Vultures were counted, and only between 12pm and 3pm (EDST). Accipiters are always reliable on slow days, 216 Sharp-shinned Hawks were counted today, and 38 Cooper's Hawks. A total of 1,761 raptors were counted of 9 species. Non-raptor Observations: More like mid-September than mid-October. One Ruby-throated Hummingbird was detected, it's getting rather late for them. Lots of Chimney Swifts were present throughout the day, as were Monarch Butterflies. Predictions: Tomorrow we are hoping that a late afternoon storm system will blow in and give the birds a push. If that works out as planned then we should have a strong morning push. The rest of the week looks cooler and cloudier, as is seasonably expected. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Greg Norwood (Greg_Norwood@fws.gov) SMRR- Lake Erie Metropark information may be found at: http://www.drhawkwatch.org