Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 12, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 0 4 4 Bald Eagle 2 18 18 Northern Harrier 15 69 69 Sharp-shinned Hawk 113 246 246 Cooper's Hawk 2 3 3 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 2488 9906 9906 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 11 52 52 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 30 128 128 Merlin 2 10 10 Peregrine Falcon 2 13 13 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 1 1 Total: 2665 10452 10452 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Jo Patterson Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Jerry Jourdan, Johannes Postma, Mark Hainen, 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: “Glory days, well, they'll pass you by, glory days.” Not quite as much glory as yesterday, but we had plenty to do today. Another day of bizzarro winds with complete lulls and sharp rises from the ashes from zero to five mph. The direction once again ended up in the southeast, after starting in the more favorable northern quadrant. The morning hours were much more productive for us, although the monarchs seem to multiply late in the afternoon. Temperatures were on the warm side, reaching the eighty-degree mark. Plenty of sunshine, as the only clouds were convective cumuli that gave us some landmarks in the sky to use to locate those tiny broadwings that were flying high today. The barometer started to fall midday and perhaps that contributed to the declining numbers of broadwings. Although the threat of rain has receded somewhat, tomorrow should have more cloud cover. Raptor Observations: We had less than one half of out total yesterday, but at least we were kept busy in the early hours. Gold, of course, went to the broadwings with two thousand, four hundred and eighty-eight. Sharpies stayed in triple digits for the silver with one hundred and thirteen. The kestrels were still fluttering through with thirty to take the bronze medal. Harriers pipped the red-tails for the first non-medalist, with a fifteen to eleven count. The count of two was shared by four species, bald eagles, Cooper’s hawk, merlin, and peregrine falcons. Non-raptor Observations: It was a quiet day on the non-raptor front. The kingfisher speared a fish and flew in front of us, film at eleven on our Facebook page. The mute swans seem to be growing a little in numbers, a pair flew by us this morning. Most of them stayed out by the jetty near Celeron Island. A blackpoll warbler paid our maple tree a short visit. We now have a resident great egret that has occupied a small floating log in front of us for the last few days. I think it has only caught one small fish that we have noticed. A blue jay was noted in the tree behind us, one of many thousands that we will see when they start migrating out of Toronto when the baseball season ends. Two hundred and fourteen monarchs flew by. Predictions: A falling barometer tomorrow with westerly winds to start, flipping to the familiar southerly winds, just after the watch starts. Cloud cover should be significant. There is a small chance of precipitation, but that may be scattered, or it may not rain at all. Slightly cooler temperatures will prevail but still in the upper half of the seventy-range. The winds will still be of moderate strength so they shouldn’t push the birds too far away, if the are willing to fly into a falling barometer with cloudy skies. ======================================================================== 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