DRHW- Lake Erie Metropark Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 04, 2010 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 41074 47163 48534 Osprey 1 2 54 Bald Eagle 7 10 148 Northern Harrier 5 29 291 Sharp-shinned Hawk 35 148 5103 Cooper's Hawk 16 70 307 Northern Goshawk 0 0 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 7 11 16 Broad-winged Hawk 0 48 79411 Red-tailed Hawk 29 64 312 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 1 1 1 American Kestrel 2 15 588 Merlin 1 6 30 Peregrine Falcon 4 6 26 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 0 2 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 5 Total: 41182 47573 134847 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Rob Payne Observers: Patrick Mulawa, Paul Cypher, Rodney Laura Visitors: Surprisingly few considering the conditions. An extra special thanks to Paul, Pat, Mark, Ron, and Rodney for all of your help today. Weather: Today was an excellent day for raptor migration. Cloud cover was minimal, and the northerly winds stayed moderate. Cloud cover picked up in the afternoon, and only made it easier to spot the birds. Raptor Observations: Another record breaking day for Turkey Vultures. WOW, is really the only way to put it. At about 10am (EDST) the first waves started to emerge over Canada, from there they persisted till about 4:15pm. At times there where thousands, in kettles so large they stretched across our little strip of Canada. A grand total of 41,074, which beats the previous record for October 4th (8,953), by 5 times. My guess is that these are not our normal masses, which are/where due in about a week. The last storm to hit the north east coast might have pushed their numbers to us. The remnants of said storm should give rain through tonight. If this is the case then we should have an incredible year for Turkey Vultures, and would maybe beat the 2005 record of 104,538. Only time will tell. We also had a Golden Eagle today, our second for the season. The first came yesterday, more details come. Ours today was seen out over Canada and only got farther away. Other raptors on the move where well represented with 11 species, excluding Turkey Vulture. 7 Bald Eagles is a jump from recent numbers, as was Peregrine Falcon with 4. Red-shouldered Hawks are rising slowly with a total of 7. The only Broad-winged Hawk of the day came in at 10:00am over the Metropark's Marshland Museum (P. Cypher), but did not meet the criteria to be counted. Non-raptor Observations: A single Red-breasted Nuthatch topped the list. If there was any more than that I missed it, there was a lot of Turkey Vultures. Predictions: A little cooler due to tonight's rain. Bird wise should be good, but I don't expect to have quite as many. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Greg Norwood ([email protected]) SMRR- Lake Erie Metropark information may be found at: http://www.drhawkwatch.org _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
