Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 26, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 6796 85434 87515 Osprey 0 1 29 Bald Eagle 2 50 147 Northern Harrier 0 107 470 Sharp-shinned Hawk 9 910 3933 Cooper's Hawk 0 36 63 American Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 10 113 113 Broad-winged Hawk 0 47 51921 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Red-tailed Hawk 66 646 792 Rough-legged Hawk 1 3 3 Golden Eagle 3 28 30 American Kestrel 0 41 964 Merlin 0 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: 6887 87452 146088 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Andrew Sturgess Observers: Bill Peregord, Don Sherwood, Frank Kitakis, Jerry Jourdan, Michelle Peregord 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: I hate to admit that I spent a great deal of time at today’s watch composing, in my mind, a stern letter to Weather Underground demanding to know why the forecasted northeast winds of five to eight mph, which had visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads, turned into a raging thirteen mph blast right from the get-go. I eventually realized that this would be an exercise in futility and decided to seethe silently, although I may have actually vocalized some disgust to my colleagues from time to time. The increased wind strength had the effect of pushing the majority of the flight out over the lake into scope country. In the final hour, when the wind let up slightly, the first TV kettle of the day was able to make it up to our site. The temperature reached fifty-five, although some of that was cancelled by the northerly winds. The winds seem to have been caused by the fact that we are between two highs that may be melding into one. The barometer did dip a little but nothing of significance. Raptor Observations: We got off to our usual slow start, despite the presence of the wind, which most days take time to develop. The turkey vultures were coming along the Canadian Lake Erie shoreline, doing the kettle-dance back and forth before deciding to stream across the lake. This probably lost some of the other species to the count as they were too hard to ID at that distance. We totaled six thousand, seven hundred and ninety-six TVs today, most coming in a late push in the afternoon hours. I suspect there were more red-tails out there today, but we did manage to snag sixty-six of them. The red-shoulders came in third with ten reps. Three golden eagles were counted, another bird that others passing may have been missed due to distance. Nine determined sharpies made it up to us against the wind, no doubt humming Bob Seger’s song at the time. Two bald eagles were noted. Now that the monkey is off our back, we had our third rough-legged of the season, this one a beautiful dark morph. Non-raptor Observations: The pelicans were in the slip early in the morning, in reduced numbers, but succumbed to the strength of the wind and were later seen in the air over Ontario. Kinglets were reported in the area. Common terns made a brief appearance. The blue jays, no doubt despondent about last night’s World Series loss, made a token appearance with twenty birds. The story of the day was the massive number of crows that made the crossing. Ten thousand, six hundred and twenty were diligently counted by Ms. Michelle Peregord, earning her the sobriquet of “Crow Woman,” an honor not to be taken lightly, and to whom a shoutout is deserved for a job well done! Predictions: It looks like another windy day tomorrow, and a windy rest of the week to follow. Northeast winds are predicted again, but at higher speeds than today. Starting at nine mph and rising to twelve is the forecast, but who knows what may actually happen. It should be a mostly sunny sky. Temps will reach the mid-fifties, but subtract a few for wind chill. It sounds like a repeat of today, so Point Mouille headquarters may be a good place to visit for the best view as the winds increase. Let’s hope they overestimated the strength and it is not another scope day for us. ======================================================================== 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