Detroit River Hawk Watch
Brownstown, Michigan, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 15, 2019
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
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Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 685 30273 30764
Osprey 0 5 35
Bald Eagle 0 9 60
Northern Harrier 3 41 215
Sharp-shinned Hawk 32 996 3074
Cooper's Hawk 0 39 50
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 4 36 36
Broad-winged Hawk 0 538 64336
Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0
Red-tailed Hawk 8 177 292
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 3 3
American Kestrel 7 83 656
Merlin 1 5 21
Peregrine Falcon 2 23 38
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: 742 32228 99581
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 15:00:00
Total observation time: 7 hours
Official Counter: Kevin Georg
Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Mark Hainen, Mark. Hainen, Rosemary Brady,
Sam Heilman, Sam. Heilman
Visitors:
Mr Murphy came by but visitors were scarce today.
Weather:
With fresh southern winds blowing, from which we are sheltered, we had a
fairly pleasant day watching the transition from high cirrus clouds in all
their permutations (mare's tails and mackerel sky) to apparent virga clouds
with apparent rain falling but never reaching the ground. Barometer fell
two tenths during the day. Interesting weather as rain is approaching but
not our most productive day.
Raptor Observations:
Turkey vultures were playing hide and seek today as the winds pushed them
north near the limits of our visibility. 685 were counted but some may have
sneaked by. 32 sharp-shins were spotted taking a wild ride in the winds. 3
harriers dared to cross, along with a falcon hat trick of 1 merlin, 2
peregrines and 7 kestrels. We did finally have some buteos with 8 red-tails
and 4 red-shoulders. These birds came in the afternoon when the winds went
a little more SSE.
Non-raptor Observations:
We did see a loon fly over this morning. A very distinctive bird in flight
with its legs trailing behind. A Bonaparte's gull came by late in the
afternoon and took up station on one of the nearby buoys. A few monarchs
are still looking for a taste of Mexican food.
Predictions:
Tomorrow does not look good with a rain system going through tonight or in
the early morning hours. With strong winds from the west, temps will be
less warm than we would prefer and the barometer will be very low during
the watch hours. The silver lining is that after this passes we should have
northern winds and a rising barometer. There might be a chance of late
afternoon movement if the system moves through quickly.
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Report submitted by Jerry Jourdan (jerry.jour...@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
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