Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 25, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 8281 78638 80719 Osprey 0 1 29 Bald Eagle 3 48 145 Northern Harrier 5 107 470 Sharp-shinned Hawk 31 901 3924 Cooper's Hawk 1 36 63 American Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 12 103 103 Broad-winged Hawk 0 47 51921 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Red-tailed Hawk 68 580 726 Rough-legged Hawk 2 2 2 Golden Eagle 3 25 27 American Kestrel 0 41 964 Merlin 2 14 47 Peregrine Falcon 0 13 43 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 1 3 Unknown Falcon 0 0 3 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 6 9 Total: 8408 80565 139201 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Jo Patterson Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord, Jerry Jourdan, Michelle Peregord, Rosemary Brady Visitors: We welcome visitors to our site as we are eager to share the joys of hawk watching with one and all. Although there may be times in which we are all very busy and need alone-time to concentrate, those are the times that are most enjoyable for visitors as the skies are filled with migrating raptors. Weather: The low angle of the rising sun revealed a network of parachute spider trip wires strung over the damp grass this morning, another reminder that we are living in their world as we do our duties during the day. As if we needed reminding, since we serve as a challenging free solo climb for all manner of insects as we sit at our picnic table base of operations. We finally found a nice balance of wind, sun and cloud today. Although the low-speed winds nearly boxed the compass, the birds found it to their liking and flew most of the day, despite our usual low totals in the first hours before the wind picked up a little. Clouds were an interesting, at times, mix of cirrus and cumulus clouds that provided some landmarks for us to follow birds, but did not deprive us of the heat of the sun, which makes a lot of difference to our comfort levels. The temperature rose to fifty-five degrees and the barometer continued to stay in the high-pressure levels in the 30.4 inches zone. Raptor Observations: The turkey vultures, once they got started today, were like Chicago voters, early and often. Our third hour, after two meh ones, had five thousand, seven hundred and thirty-six birds out of our total of eight thousand, two hundred and eighty-one. A lot of these birds must have sat down overnight within a two-hour radius. They kept moving until the end of the day. Red-tails picked up the pace today with sixty-eight birds soaring by. Sharpies managed to retain their podium status with thirty-one respondents. Twelve red-shouldered hawks flew by, working much harder than the red-tails. Five northern harriers, one a gray ghost kettling with vultures, pumped by today. Three bald eagles were noted. One Cooper’s hawk was tallied. Two merlins represented the falcons. The Holy Grail birds today were three golden eagles and two rough-legged hawks, both light morph and our first of the season.. We finally have the rough-legged monkey off our back and it was a pleasure to be rid of it. I’m not comparing it to the Cubs Billy goat curse, which took seventy-one years to break, but it was weighing heavily on us. Non-raptor Observations: The pelicans stole the show today, as usual. They flew in close and were feeding on some unfortunate schools of small fish that seem to be moving into shallower waters lately. Close flybys and groups of fishing birds drew more oohs and aahs that any of the spectacular raptor movements that we had today. The kingfisher was busy today, occasionally laughing at us as he sped by. The local eagles were active today in the immediate area. Crow numbers continue to increase, with two thousand, five hundred and seventy present today. Two monarchs made the trek, so they are not dead yet. Predictions: We had a better day than expected today, despite the light variable winds. Tomorrow’s forecast is promising northeast winds, all day. in the seven to nine mph range. Perhaps “promising” is too strong a word as the wind seems to be the least predictable of all the forecasted details. Let’s hope they are right, for a change. and we do get those winds. We should have relatively clear skies, high pressure, and temperatures in the mid-fifties. Those are good things and on paper, it looks to be a very promising day. ======================================================================== 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