Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 16, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 23 38 38 Osprey 2 16 16 Bald Eagle 6 12 12 Northern Harrier 15 61 61 Sharp-shinned Hawk 74 291 291 Cooper's Hawk 2 3 3 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 8507 11604 11604 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 8 21 21 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 111 299 299 Merlin 2 3 3 Peregrine Falcon 1 10 10 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 8751 12359 12359 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:30:00 Total observation time: 8.5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Mark Hainen Visitors: We are still dealing with the residue of the Covid 19 situation. The workers at the site will be in an enclosed area that is designed for four people only. We still love to interact and share our love of hawk watching with visitors. Feel free to ask questions and look over our shoulders to help you follow the birds. Watch the weather for favorable forecasts as the birds are predictable to some degree based on weather situations. One other thing of note this year; the boat-launch bathroom building has been shut down for the foreseeable future due to plumbing issues. There are Porta-Johns in the parking lot should you require them. Weather: Laissez le bon temps rouler. Another day in which one of the most awesome sights in nature was on display for those with good binoculars and the perseverance to seek it out. The weather was pleasant with E winds to start that eventually moved to SSE and gradually grew in strength up to double digits. Although not our favorite wind, it was benign enough to allow birds to move and move they did. We were fortunate to have a low backdrop of cumulus clouds in the northern quadrant of the sky that helped us locate that most elusive of raptors, and the object of our desire, the broad-winged hawk. Temperatures stayed in the lower seventies. The barometer was fairly stable with a very slight drop towards the end of the day. Our cloud backdrop eventually began to disappear as the sky approached a ninety percent blue color as the watch drew to a close. Raptor Observations: Today was in many ways the inverse of yesterday in that we started fairly fast and tailed off toward the end; yesterday was a slow buildup with a strong finish. We had another good day with the broad-wings on the move. Counting these birds is similar to trying to count raindrops. In this case, the raindrops fall horizontally and fall in torrents at times. Some of the groups of broadwings can be over one thousand birds and it is easy to develop “scope-eye” straining to see them. Today’s tally was eight thousand, five hundred and seven. We think that the turkey vultures are starting to feel the urge to move and we counted twenty-three. They are normally an October bird but start to move in late September. Our harrier count was down today but still a respectable fifteen birds. Sharp-shins and kestrels are big movers in September and today we ended with seventy four sharp-shins and one hundred and eleven kestrels. Bald eagles were motivated to travel with six counted as they pumped their way through. A pair of ospreys were noted. Eight red-tailed hawks were seen, usually keeping company with other travelers. We counted one Cooper’s hawk. The falcon’s contingent was rounded out with two angry merlin and one peregrine falcon counted on the day. Non-raptor Observations: Today we saw our first Bonaparte’s Gulls that made a very brief appearance and then disappeared. We are seeing the Forster’s terns on a regular basis, mostly roosting on the base of an entrance buoy rather than actively fishing. The warbler count was reported to be down today as if they had moved on during the night. Monarchs were the other big mover today with over two thousand counted. We think that number may be a little low since we were too busy counting raptors. Lots of swallows were seen in the sky today but thankfully they were not blocking our view as they kept their distance. Occasionally, over the last few days we have seen long strings of cormorants flying low over the water as they took begin to congregate in larger groups. Predictions: Tomorrow appears to have a couple of strikes against it. The barometer will be dropping, although not a significant amount. Cloud cover should be building with a low percentage chance of rain. The winds will be increasing from the S, although predicted to stay below ten mph. It looks to have less promise than today but the bad elements are tempered and may not be a deal breaker. This weather may set up a nice rebound on Saturday with our favorite NE wind and rising barometer that usually coincides with our biggest movement days. Cloud cover should remain but when looking for broadwings that can be a plus. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess (ajyes72@gmail.com) Detroit River Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://www.detroitriverhawkwatch.org More site information at hawkcount.org: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=285 Count data submitted via Dunkadoo - Project info at: https://dunkadoo.org/explore/detroit-river-international-wildlife-refuge/detroit-river-hawk-watch-fall-2021