Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 22, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 1094 43614 44105 Osprey 0 5 35 Bald Eagle 0 22 73 Northern Harrier 0 74 248 Sharp-shinned Hawk 13 1512 3590 Cooper's Hawk 1 55 66 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 79 79 Broad-winged Hawk 0 538 64336 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 4 420 535 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 3 3 American Kestrel 2 110 683 Merlin 0 9 25 Peregrine Falcon 1 28 43 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: 1115 46469 113822 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 5 hours Official Counter: Observers: Visitors: Johannes braved both I-94 and the weather to join us and was lucky enough to see the dark morph red tail. Weather: Clear blue skies to start the day, filling in with heavy clods of dark-bottomed cumulus clouds. The wind was consistently strong from the southern quarter, a discouraging wind for any raptors to fly into. The barometer was relatively stable around 29.7 as a low pressure system swirled around us with double digit winds and possible gusts of 40 mph. Raptor Observations: This is why we play the game. A day that did not look promising in any way turned up a special bird. A rufous dark-morph red-tailed hawk flew by despite, or maybe because of the winds. We did manage some shots to help ID the bird. 3 more ordinary red-tailed hawks were spotted. Otherwise, the turkey vultures put on a show gyrating in the turbulent atmosphere. We counted 1094. Sharp-shins were mostly sitting out this dance with only 13 counted. 1 Cooper's hawk completed the accipiter count. Falcons were represented by 2 kestrels flying together and 1 peregrine braved the wind. Non-raptor Observations: The wind was the main player today. There were some gulls up zooming around. A monarch was spotted on this least likely of days. Some small numbers of crows and blue jays were seen. Predictions: The southerly winds will continue tomorrow, albeit dropping in fury. The barometer, after bottoming out today, will begin to rise. I think the better day might be Thursday when the winds will be WNW with the barometer continuing to rise over 30". I would expect turkey vultures and sharpies tomorrow but buteos may not be impressed with the southern winds. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jerry Jourdan (jerry.jourdan@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