DRHW- Pointe Mouillee State Game Area
Michigan, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 17, 2008
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
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Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 10829 23176 23483
Osprey 0 0 10
Bald Eagle 2 12 41
Northern Harrier 4 33 119
Sharp-shinned Hawk 70 284 1054
Cooper's Hawk 19 43 124
Northern Goshawk 1 2 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 15 19 23
Broad-winged Hawk 0 19 285546
Red-tailed Hawk 200 301 393
Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1
Golden Eagle 3 3 3
American Kestrel 4 71 389
Merlin 0 2 7
Peregrine Falcon 0 1 13
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0
Unknown Buteo 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 0 0
Swainson's Hawk 1 1 5
Short-eared Owl 3 3 3
Total: 11151 23971 311216
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Observation start time: 08:15:00
Observation end time: 16:30:00
Total observation time: 8.25 hours
Official Counter: Calvin Brennan
Observers: Allen Chartier, Charlene Brennan, Frank Kitakis,
John Elliott, Richard Naber
Visitors:
Saul Hanft
Tex Wells
Al Mink
Ron Harkness
Weather:
There was a mix of sun and cloud seen throughout the day today with
generally more cloud in the morning and less cloud in the afternoon. Winds
were light north-northwest early becoming light to moderate northeast by
midday then fairly brisk northeast later in the afternoon.
Raptor Observations:
There was a fairly typical pattern of movement today with not much
happening for the first hour and a half or so followed by a steady movement
of birds from late morning until early evening. Todays TV total eclipsed
yesterdays as the biggest of the season with some very large groups seen
well in excess of a thousand birds. Other highlights of the day included a
dark morph juvenile Swainsons Hawk, a Northern Goshawk of unknown age
along with several Short-eared Owls. One of the owls was noted flying well
above a line of TVs and migrating crows. We often think of owls as being
fairly low level fliers but Short-ears as diurnal migrants will use
thermals in the same way as other raptors and therefore will often be seen
at elevation.
Non-raptor Observations:
By far the most numerous non-raptor migrants were crows. The flight for
them was about as continuous as the vultures and started even earlier in
the day with the two species often flying along in concert, making it a
challenging counting day especially when trying to detect other raptors
among the strings of birds. Other passerines noted migrating today were
Eastern Bluebird and a single Barn Swallow among still very good numbers of
Trees. A small group of Dunlins also made an appearance.
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Report submitted by Calvin Brennan ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
SMRR- Pointe Mouillee State Game Area information may be found at:
http://www.smrr.net/
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