"With winds whipping out of the west today my goal was to head to Lake Michigan and watch for hawks along the bluff somewhere. I decided that it’d be fun to head over to the Forest Beach Migratory Preserve, as I haven’t really spent much time there to date. When I got there I found Calvin (from Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory) at the hawk watching platform. Over the next few hours we observed ~300 broad-winged hawks in kettles varying in size from 20-30 hawks up to 75+. It’s the first time I have observed that and it was pretty cool. We watched sharp-shinned hawks migrating south the entire time we were there, some coming very close to the platform. We also had a few bald eagles, a number of Cooper’s hawks, an osprey, a peregrine falcon, 3 northern harriers, quite a few red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures. I counted 3 kestrels as well as over a dozen merlin. Having the opportunity to watch for a few hours straight with someone as knowledgeable as Calvin really helped me with my raptor ID skills - it was a great learning experience for me and a lot of fun. Also seen from the platform was a redheaded woodpecker, some turkeys and a few Northern Flickers.
Walking the trails I located a single phoebe, a few pine siskin (with Bill Mueller’s ears initially finding them), a redstart and a meadowlark among the more common stuff."