Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 20, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 1944 61880 63961 Osprey 0 0 28 Bald Eagle 1 38 135 Northern Harrier 3 84 447 Sharp-shinned Hawk 81 742 3765 Cooper's Hawk 0 32 59 American Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 9 79 79 Broad-winged Hawk 0 47 51921 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Red-tailed Hawk 12 413 559 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 2 16 18 American Kestrel 0 40 963 Merlin 0 9 42 Peregrine Falcon 2 12 42 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: 2054 63401 122037 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, 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: Normally, when a tempest such as yesterdays had passed, we expect northerly winds as a new high comes in. However, we are situated at the very top end of a high, and therefore, getting westerly winds, at least to start the day. Six mph eventually became a brisk sixteen, before our usual change of direction in the afternoon. The wind backed around, settling in the south. That required us to search harder for the birds than we had in the morning, as the flight lines changed further to the north. The temperature reached sixty-two degrees, which doesn’t sound too bad, except with a sixteen-mph wind and the shade of a determined maple which did not give up many leaves yesterday, as many trees did. It is finally starting to feel like fall. Cloud cover was sparse today, with occasional cirrus and small cumulus clouds making cameo appearances, but not staying in the frame very long. The barometer climbed, but that is only temporary, as there is a low to the west of us and more rain and low pressure are soon to arrive. Raptor Observations: Turkey vultures carried the day, as expected. We tallied nineteen hundred and forty-four. They came fairly close until the wind pushed them to the north in the afternoon. The sharp-shins had a good day with eighty-one specimens being seen. We had thought that they were nearly done with the big runs, but this is a respectable number for our site. Red-tailed hawks were not as plentiful as we hoped for, with only twelve of them passing through. Their sometimes doppelganger, the red-shouldered hawk, nearly matched them with nine birds. We had three harriers today, two, traveling together, were gray ghosts. These birds are blown around by gusty winds so they were probably staying low behind the trees today. Two peregrines were seen, handling the winds very well, as they usually do. The golden eagles outnumbered the bald eagles today by a two to one count. The local bald eagles were up in force today as this is the kind of brisk winds that they enjoy. There were also providing escort service to the city limits for one of the goldens, reminding it of whose territory it was traveling through. Non-raptor Observations: Turkey vultures carried the day, as expected. We tallied nineteen hundred and forty-four. They came fairly close until the wind pushed them to the north in the afternoon. The sharp-shins had a good day with eighty-one specimens being seen. We had thought that they were nearly done with the big runs, but this is a respectable number for our site. Red-tailed hawks were not as plentiful as we hoped for, with only twelve of them passing through. Their sometimes doppelganger, the red-shouldered hawk, nearly matched them with nine birds. We had three harriers today, two, traveling together, were gray ghosts. These birds are blown around by gusty winds so they were probably staying low behind the trees today. Two peregrines were seen, handling the winds very well, as they usually do. The golden eagles outnumbered the bald eagles today by a two to one count. The local bald eagles were up in force today as this is the kind of brisk winds that they enjoy. There were also providing escort service to the city limits for one of the goldens, reminding it of whose territory it was traveling through. Predictions: Another drop in pressure tomorrow, and potential showers, along with southern winds. does not make for a promising day. The next two days look a little wet, with high winds from a direction containing the word south. It should be much cloudier, with temperatures reaching the very high fifties tomorrow, and maybe just falling short of the mark on Wednesday. Neither look to be promising days, but hope springs eternal, and the birds don’t read weather reports. ======================================================================== 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