Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 27, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 60 435 435 Osprey 0 17 17 Bald Eagle 0 26 26 Northern Harrier 6 124 124 Sharp-shinned Hawk 135 1982 1982 Cooper's Hawk 0 5 5 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 19117 19117 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 37 37 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 28 494 494 Merlin 2 18 18 Peregrine Falcon 4 17 17 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 235 22273 22273 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Alex Gilford, Andrew Sturgess, Frank Kitakis, Mark Hainen 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: We are thinking of today as an overture to greater things. Usually, an overture is a bit of noodling around waiting for the good stuff, except of course in the Barber of Seville, as anyone that is familiar with Bugs Bunny knows. Now that was an overture. But I digress. On the weather front today, we had adverse wind conditions that had the smaller birds taking an undulating Disney A ride as they crossed the water facing into the gusty winds. The barometer fell as the temperatures rose to the high seventies. Skies cleared to bright blue and it looked very much like a high-pressure system despite the barometric pressure drop. The winds are working their way around to a NE direction tomorrow from WSW today, this will end temps in the seventies for a few days as the cooler air from the north settles in. Raptor Observations: We were not expecting a great day, the wind being a factor in our thoughts, but hopefully that will turn around tomorrow with a new more favored direction. We did count sixty turkey vultures heading for the exits, but only in very small groups. We didn’t expect to see too many buteos today but found sixteen broad-winged hawks well off the north in a hazy sky. Six harriers were noted as they passed. We had a good falcon day, notching twenty-eight kestrels, two merlin, and four peregrines. Some of them were feeling feisty as the kestrels engaged in a few dogfights with sharpies as they battled for dragonflies. Sharp-shins were off a little today but we still managed to count one hundred and forty-five. One sharp-shinned was observed packing a lunch as it brought a small yellow entrée across the slip. Our resident osprey was seen hovering in front of us but it never dove. We have not seen much fishing in our end of the slip this year. They have been seen carrying goldfish from other channels between the Gibraltar islands. In past years they caught a lot of shad from the lake. Non-raptor Observations: Our gulls continue their quest to control the insect population in front of us as they make quick herky-jerky moves to close on their prey. A few hummingbirds were seen flying by today. Our two Caspian terns seemed to be back at work. Monarchs were lower today as their numbers seem related to raptor passage in a linear fashion. The blue jays continue to increase in numbers but they were forced to fly low today, at times in the tree tops. We saw a few hundred today. Predictions: The barometer will bottom out this evening and should be rising steadily tomorrow. Winds will be NE, peaking at nine mph just after the start of the watch, and then easing down gradually during the day. This might be low enough to keep travelers in our neighborhood rather than out over the lake by Point Mouille. Traditionally, this is our best weather scenario, or if the winds are too strong, Holiday Beach’s best scenario. Time will tell if there are enough procrastinating broadwings to make it an interesting day. It certainly looks better than the overture we had today. ======================================================================== 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