East winds give a slow day for 3-31

After a windy, snowy, rainy day the prediction was for Friday to clear in the afternoon with winds switching to the north. The clearing stayed to just north of the Straits and the winds slowly moved from north-east to south-east and shut off the migration. We started at the Recreation Center site and at 2 pm moved to Darrow’s. The first hour with lift-off birds we had 61 Red-tail, 2 Red-shouldered, and 25 Turkey Vultures. The numbers quickly slowed with the east winds. We ended the day with a total of 100 Red-tail, 1-light and 1-dark Rough-legged, 3 Red-shouldered, 35 Turkey Vulture, 2 adult Bald Eagles, and 1 male Northern Harrier. We also saw a Northern Shrike perched in a tree at the south end of the Darrow’s site.
With a sunny Saturday predicted it should be a busy day at the Hawk Count.