Raptor Migration 4/28-29/2022

    On Thursday and Friday more than 100 raptors were seen migrating over my property.  More than half were Turkey Vultures but 51 others represented 9 species.  The first Broad-wingeds of the year were seen....

  ...which included a dark morph seen below.

Immature Red-shouldered Hawk

Rough-legged

Molting Red-tailed

An Osprey brought its own lunch

  The usually speedy Peregrine Falcon slowed to do a few spins over the yard.

Another Rough-legged on Friday

A Cooper's Hawk probably not migrating

   The Bald Eagles below were not migrating either but the lead bird appears to have found a place for one stop shopping as it is carrying tattered fish remains and nesting material.

   Stay tuned for updates on these eagles because they appear to be repeating the behavior that I saw from them last year where one would fly north empty-handed, then a short while later fly south with a fish in its grasp. I suspect that there is a nest a little to the south of me. 

Broad-winged Hawks at Lake Erie Metropark 9/16-9/19/2019

   I spent a few days at the Detroit River Hawk Watch at Lake Erie Metropark trying to catch the Broadwinged Hawk migration.  The Broadwings put on a good show on Monday (35,000) and Tuesday (23,000).  The volume tapered off substantially the rest of the week as the winds shifted from north to unfavorable south.

  Below is a video of Broadwings streaming out of one kettle and into another.  Note the lack of flapping as they conserve energy by gliding from one thermal to another.

   It was a bad week for local fish as the Bald Eagles and Ospreys patrolled the Detroit River.

Orange is the new snack

      Dave Boon tipped me off to an injured immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron at Port Sunlight Rd. near Estral Beach.

Early Hawk Migration 8/14/2019

     Yesterday afternoon after a pre-work nap , I checked my phone and found an eye-opening voicemail from Dave Dister, telling of a significant Red-tailed Hawk migration witnessed by Matt McConnell.  Matt had been working outside in a residential area of Ludington and noticed small groups of hawks flying over, starting in the late morning.  His informal running tally through the afternoon ended up being around 200.  Two hundred Redtails?  How long was I asleep?

    The hawk migration count that I'm most familiar with, is the one at Lake Erie Metropark conducted from September 1 to November 30.  On average (according to data from the years 1991-2008) at that premier migration location, their cumulative season total of Red-tails doesn't hit 200 until the last week in September.  So to have 200 in one day before the middle of August was absolutely unexpected, at least to me.
 
    Having woken up too late to catch any of the migration yesterday I was hoping it would continue along with the northerly winds forecast for today.  A few minutes after I got up today at 12:30pm I went out on the deck and immediately saw 4 Redtails passing over.  So I grabbed my camera headed to my place of employment, where I have access to an elevated roadway that is 150 feet above the surrounding terrain and 360 feet above nearby Lake Michigan. In the past, from that site I have noticed small groups of raptors migrating with a few of the birds passing at eye-level.

   You want eye-level?

How about below eye-level?

  Finally, among the Red-tails was a single immature Broad-winged Hawk.

  I ended up seeing 49 Red-tailed Hawks between 1 and 2 PM before a light rain halted the flight.

Lake Erie Metropark Hawk Watch 11/2/2014

   As advertised, the draw of the Hawk Watch at Lake Erie Metropark in November is variety of raptor species. The count today included 30 Golden Eagles, 97 Red-Shouldered Hawks, 6 Rough-leggeds and 2 Goshawks among 10 species in total.

Rough-legged Hawk

Red-shouldered and Northern Harrier

Golden Eagle

Red-tail Hawk and Golden Eagle

Immature Red-Shouldered Hawk

Broad-winged Hawks 9/18/2014 with video

    Thursday September 18, produced a third straight day of 39K+  Broadwings migrating over the lower Detroit River.  The official count at Lake Erie Metropark was in the upper 30,000's.  A similar if not greater number was observed but not counted at the Pt. Mouillee SGA Headquarters.  At Pt. Moo we enjoyed mostly high altitude but often straight over head views of this remarkable phenomenon.  The strong NNE wind gave the birds a tailwind that had them mostly streaming with any kettling limited to a couple of revolutions, then back to straightforward flight.

    

  Another year another pair of distant sparring Bald Eagles

  In the next photo the Broadwings are gaining altitude that is taking them into the clouds.

  The past few mornings the waning moon has been in the sky and many broadwings have been on a path that put them in the same field of view with it.  Although the hawks were flying high they weren't effectively at infinity as the 250,000 mile distant moon is.  In order to try to get them both in focus I stopped down my lens to f/20 and still didn't succeed in getting them both sharp.

  By 5:30 activity subsided at Pt. Moo, so I headed to the LEMP count area to see what the official counters came up with.   When I got there I found that they must have just left as the flow of hawks there had also stopped.   Seeing only two unfamiliar cars in the lot, I just did a quick loop and intended to continue on home.  But as I getting back on the road I gave a quick look back and thought I saw a kettle of hawks over the river.  I circled back into the parking lot, parked and grabbed my binoculars and walked out to the river's edge.  The birds that I had seen from the car had moved on behind the trees, 

    I ran into a couple of birders sitting on a bench near the counters table.  Thinking they had been there for the afternoon count, I asked them what they had seen.  Turns out, Phil and Mimi had just arrived, from Farmington Hills, five minutes before I had and thought that since the counters had stayed until 6 PM the previous day they would still be there.  Officially the count ends at 4 PM they only stay later when the migration continues through that time.  As we talked of Sandhill Cranes, warblers and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I noticed a naked-eye kettle crossing the river toward us.  Over the next half hour we got great views of 500-600 Broad-wingeds, a couple of Bald Eagles and a Northern Harrier.

  Below are the birds I watched with Mimi and Phil.

 Click on the links below for a couple of short shaky videos of the hawks from Pt. Mouillee.

Broadwinged Video 1

Broadwinged Video 2

Over 120,000 Broad-wingeds at Lake Erie Metropark 9/16-17

    The peak of Broad-winged Hawks migration has arrived at Lake Erie Metropark. Tuesday 68,000 were counted and today another 52,000 were added.    Tomorrow's weather will be favorable for another good day with winds with a northerly component.  So if there are still broadwings that need to move through, Thursday would be a perfect day for them to do it.

   Even if another broadwing day doesn't materialize tomorrow there should be plenty of other raptors to keep the hawk watchers busy.

Flying on their backs

Merlin

Osprey

Sharp-Shinned

American Kestrel

  Songbirds are also migrating through LEMP.

Black and White Warbler

American Redstart

Magnolia Warbler

   Warblers are also migrating through my yard.

Tennessee Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

  Other recent yardbirds of interest are shown below

Common Nighthawk

Ruby-throated Hummingbird