SMRR- Lake Erie Metropark Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 20, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 58 248 248 Osprey 15 179 179 Bald Eagle 18 63 63 Northern Harrier 28 261 261 Sharp-shinned Hawk 721 3774 3774 Cooper's Hawk 10 70 70 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 1 1 Broad-winged Hawk 30845 78021 78021 Red-tailed Hawk 22 171 171 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 306 1078 1078 Merlin 5 45 45 Peregrine Falcon 0 11 11 Unknown 0 0 0 Swainson's Hawk 8 8 8 Total: 32036 83931 83931 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 17:15:00 Total observation time: 10.25 hours Official Counter: Calvin Brennan Observers: Jeff Schultz, Jim Maki, Lathe Claflin, Matt Pety Visitors: Al Kostyniak Kevin Meek Anne Hanft Saul Hanft Paul Cypher Weather: Todays conditions were clear and sunny with very little in the way of clouds for the most part. Winds were predominately from the west bearing slightly to the southwest during the afternoon. Raptor Observations: The flight overall was quite steady throughout the day with large groups of Broad-wings coming through high overhead all day long. These groups are always a challenge to keep track of in cloudless skies especially as they were being buffeted around quite a bit in what was a fairly strong and gusty west wind. The largest kettle actually came through during the final hour of the count numbering some 12,000 birds. As is often the case during these large Broad-wing pushes, they are accompanied by some number of Swainsons Hawks. Well, today was a record day in that regard with 8 tallied, doubling the previous single day high for the species! Non-raptor Observations: ======================================================================== Report submitted by Calvin Brennan ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) SMRR- Lake Erie Metropark information may be found at: http://www.smrr.net/
