Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 09, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 0 9 9 Bald Eagle 0 1 1 Northern Harrier 0 12 12 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 29 29 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 0 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 8 195 195 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 10 10 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 2 29 29 Merlin 0 0 0 Peregrine Falcon 0 2 2 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: 12 288 288 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 6.5 hours Official Counter: Andrew Sturgess, Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Frank Kitakis 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: Winter is coming seemed to be the theme of the day. Cooler winds from the NW required some wardrobe adjustments and the sky filled with wildly rent clouds with ominous dark seams of a dull purple hue. One of the very darkest clouds, a lighter shade of black, dropped a little rain on us to further seal the mood of the day. The winds were fairly robust most of the day, falling and rising again in brief gusts towards the end of the watch. The barometer stayed just below 30” all day. Temperatures stayed around seventy most of the day but the real-feels caused by the wind chill felt a little less than that. A day that’s bark was worse than its bite, but the bark seemed pretty menacing at times. Raptor Observations: If the birds don’t want to migrate, nobody can stop them. Once again, they faced a robust wind that may have pushed some of the birds to the south of us where we could not see them, if they were actually on the move. We did manage to pick off a few but they were few and far between, nonexistent in the afternoon as the sky turned ugly. Two sharpies fluttered by, buffeted by the wind. Their usual traveling companions, the kestrels, matched the number with two of their species. Our hopes were lifted somewhat in the morning when we saw a lone broadwing soaring our way. He was not joined by many companions, however, and we only totaled eight on the day. Although the last few days have been somewhat disappointing; we are still well ahead of last year’s total thanks to the high-pressure system that arrived on the first day of the watch and brought some early broadwings our way. The season is still young and should pick up in the latter half of September, which is close. Non-raptor Observations: We had two visitors today apart from the usual suspects. A common loon was seen dragging its feet out over the lake. It took an irregularly shaped flight line looking like it might come to see us before turning back to the open waters of Lake Erie. Behind us we heard the familiar rattle of a sandhill crane, a solo bird that flew over the slip away from us before returning to give us another view. A few hummingbirds and possible migrating warblers were seen flying over today. Predictions: Tomorrow will start a warming trend that may reach close to ninety degrees on Sunday. The barometer will continue its climb and should break the thirty-inch barrier tomorrow. Skies are predicted to be clearer than today with a mostly sunny forecast, but clouds will fill in later in the afternoon. Winds will start in a NW direction but be in the low single digits which may allow more raptors to reach us if they wish to do so. ======================================================================== 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