Detroit River Hawk Watch
Brownstown, Michigan, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 18, 2019
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
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Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 51 4011 52219
Osprey 0 0 35
Bald Eagle 0 15 93
Northern Harrier 3 74 339
Sharp-shinned Hawk 11 249 4106
Cooper's Hawk 2 33 116
Northern Goshawk 0 1 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 33 536 731
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 64336
Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0
Red-tailed Hawk 254 3798 4656
Rough-legged Hawk 0 10 11
Golden Eagle 6 45 49
American Kestrel 0 4 702
Merlin 0 1 32
Peregrine Falcon 0 6 52
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: 360 8783 127480
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Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 7 hours
Official Counter: Kevin Georg
Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Patrick Mulawa,
Rosemary Brady
Visitors:
Deanna and Johannes came by to look for golden eagles. Most of the birds
today were distant, although a few buteos flew over in the morning hours.
Deanna will have to wait for her National Geo golden shot. You have to pay
your dues with those birds:)
Weather:
I must admit that today's forecast had me a little confused. Although we
had light NE winds predicted the barometer was low (29.75"), yet it looked
like an early spring day with bright blue skies and melting snow. If I was
confused, the wind was even more so, meandering around the compass headings
with little effort expended. We are apparently between systems in some sort
of Bermuda Triangle situation. Ooooh that's scary...
Raptor Observations:
>From a very slow start we ramped up to a fairly decent day of movement in
the late morning/early afternoon hours. The buteos were still on the move
even with little wind to assist them. 254 red-tails and 33 red-shoulders
kettled their way by. Turkey vultures came in at 51 specimens. Accipiters
were represented by 11 sharp-shins and 2 Cooper's hawks. 3 harriers were
observed. Another decent day for golden eagles with 6 seen working their
way south. In the late afternoon hours the flight shut down with little
seen in the last hour.
Non-raptor Observations:
Waterfowl were observed in the second hour of the watch migrating in long
strings but this was short-lived. Fairly slow day for other species as the
winds were light. We did see a pair of bald eagles at a great distance
practicing their talon grabbing moves without actually grabbing.
Predictions:
Cloudy and cooler with light winds as we await the arrival of a well
defined system. The barometer should have bottomed out by the time we get
back on site and be rising during the watch. There seems to be a lot of
raptor movement but whether we will catch it is hard to predict. Slightly
favorable winds in the afternoon may bode well but...still scary.
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Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess (ajye...@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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