Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 13, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 2390 4578 8696 Osprey 0 3 22 Bald Eagle 0 12 46 Northern Harrier 3 91 287 Sharp-shinned Hawk 152 1254 4168 Cooper's Hawk 0 3 14 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 3 8 Broad-winged Hawk 0 10 22232 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 15 40 101 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 1 American Kestrel 73 171 820 Merlin 4 15 38 Peregrine Falcon 1 18 44 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 2639 6198 36478 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Mark Hainen, Patrick Mulawa 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: Another day of restless skies with frequent changes in appearance. Half a sky of foreboding dark morning clouds dropping rain out over the lake greeted us, it soon changed to cumulus laden chamber of commerce skies, then to clear blue, and finally the appearance of high icy cirrus clouds forecast rain to come tomorrow. Against this backdrop an epic struggle was taking place around us. The Battle of Pelennor Fields was taking place in miniature as spiders and mysterious flea-like creatures squared off in mortal combat. Had we stayed longer we might have been fully cocooned in silk since they had built functioning webs in our camera hoods and on the scope tripods. The minute but plentiful mystery-bug combatants sought refuge in the small end of our binoculars and scopes causing some consternation and occasional ocular discomfit. During all this, the winds were up and down in strength and moved from W to S throughout the day. The final S direction moved the flight line off to the north after a fairly decent day. The morning and early afternoon winds were moderate in strength and did not affect the flight as much. Temperatures were comfortable as they rose to seventy degrees from sixties in the morning. The barometer moved very little but hung around thirty inches most of the day dropping a little at the end. Raptor Observations: Although the viewing conditions were not perfect, with haze and high humidity causing some issues, it was good enough to see most of the birds without the gauze effect that we have been dealing with lately. The turkey vultures were visible today as they moved most of the day. We should be seeing thousands at this time of year and we finally cracked that nut today with two thousand, three hundred and ninety black bombers floating by. It was a little curious that when the vultures took a break, the small birds seemed to come in droves as sharpies and kestrels came in big numbers. We ended with one hundred and fifty-two sharp-shins and seventy-three kestrels. Even these birds were pushed to the north at the end of the day. We finally got a few buteos today as red-tailed hawks were gliding by, totaling fifteen in all. We had four merlins today and barely made our falcon hat trick as a distant peregrine was noticed diving on the lone red-shouldered hawk as it flew by. We also had three northern harriers high overhead today. Our intrepid spotter and photographer, Mark Hainen, made a great discovery on the way home today. He noticed that one of those things was not like the other and got a shot of a Swainson’s hawk in with the migrating turkey vultures. Neither of the neighboring hawk watches caught that bird but most of the vultures were seen at some distance, especially in the final hours with gull kettles providing cover. Non-raptor Observations: Blue jays continue to flood the skies with large flocks passing though. More blackbirds and starling flocks are being seen. One way to locate sharpies in the morning hours is to look under a small “starling ball” as they often gather over an accipiter to mark its presence. Large murmurations are sometimes seen over Canada. Caspian terns are still here but their numbers are small. Monarchs numbered thirty-five today. Gulls were up in significant numbers in kettles hawking insects. Predictions: Tomorrow may be a day of two parts. Rain looks probable in the later hours but the morning may allow us some time to observe the sky, dark though it may be. Winds will be from the southern quadrant although moderate in strength. The barometer will be slowly dropping and take a plunge the next day as more rain is forecast for Friday. I think the best chance for movement may be Saturday and Sunday when the barometer rebounds after this wet patch moves through. The winds look more favorable on those days. ======================================================================== 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