Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 07, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 629 1411 5529 Osprey 1 2 21 Bald Eagle 5 6 40 Northern Harrier 6 83 279 Sharp-shinned Hawk 103 837 3751 Cooper's Hawk 0 1 12 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 2 7 Broad-winged Hawk 2 9 22231 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 6 20 81 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 1 American Kestrel 3 70 719 Merlin 0 5 28 Peregrine Falcon 2 9 35 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: 758 2455 32735 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Erika Van Kirk, Frank Kitakis, Shourjya Majumder 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: I find that the judicious use of sarcasm has its benefits from time to time. I think today was one of those times. After my scathing comments in yesterday’s report, using double reverse psychology and other subtle tricks known only to professional cynics, the weather gods took heed and we saw something we had not seen for a few days, our shadows. Despite the gloomy forecast predicting nearly all cloud all the time, we did see a little blue today with less of the low hanging, fog-like clouds of the last couple of days. Winds were from ENE to start and moderate in strength, eventually changing to SSE and increasing before falling some in the final hours. The barometer hung in there, above thirty in the morning, but eventually started to drop as the rain approached. Temperatures peaked at seventy-three but stayed there only for a moment before falling again. There was a chill factor with the wind, as there usually is at our location. Rain finally curtailed the watch during the last hour. Raptor Observations: We delayed the start of the watch one hour today due to fog. The relative humidity has been in the upper eighties the last few days and so it was today. With full cloud cover for the first hour, we started slowly with only seven birds. When the viewing got a little better, we were able to see turkey vultures kettling and streaming in accessible locations. Today we totaled six hundred and twenty-nine but they seemed to take the last couple of hours off, along with the rest of the species. Whether that was due to a wind change, or the approaching rain, is not certain. Sharp-shins were still moving today, sometimes very high above us, but mostly to the north where the winds pushed them. One hundred and three passed through the turnstiles today. We hoped to see more buteos today but only managed six red-tailed hawks, one red-shouldered hawk and two straggler broad-winged hawks. Their big-brothers, the bald eagles, were on the move with five of them noted, moving with intent. One osprey was also counted. Falcons were scarce today with only five noted, three kestrels and two peregrines. The final sum of northern harriers was six. Non-raptor Observations: It was a relatively quiet day again for non-raptors. In the morning we counted one thousand cormorants in a tight pack on the water by Celeron Island. Blue jays were moving today but mostly off to the north, or higher, making them difficult to see. Monarchs were present in low numbers with twenty-four noted. We always search the kettles of turkey vultures to look for other species, usually told by their flatter wing profile and smaller size. Today we noticed a red-tailed hawk that took exception to some offhand remark by a turkey vulture and dove on it a few times ala merlin style. Predictions: Tomorrow holds little promise for migration. The barometer will be dropping and rain will be a possibility in the 40-50% range all day long. Winds will be SE or SSE, although moderate in strength. The cloud cover is predicted to be less than 100% but that remains to be seen. We were chased off in the last hour by rain today and that may be the case tomorrow. ======================================================================== 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