Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 16, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 32 32 Osprey 1 6 6 Bald Eagle 2 19 19 Northern Harrier 22 65 65 Sharp-shinned Hawk 231 1041 1041 Cooper's Hawk 0 6 6 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 2 26703 26703 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 89 89 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 20 274 274 Merlin 1 11 11 Peregrine Falcon 0 8 8 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 279 28254 28254 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Bill Peregord, Frank Kitakis, Mark Hainen, Patrick Mulawa, Sarah deGuise Visitors: We are located by the boat launch in Lake Erie Metropark in a fenced off area at the Hawk Watch site. This does not mean that we do not welcome interaction with any and all visitors. We enjoy talking about what we do and sharing our knowledge with beginners and experts alike. Please feel free to come up and talk to us. We usually have our backs turned to the parking lot as we scan the skies in front of us. This should not be interpreted as a sign of reluctance to engage: this is how we do our job. We have friendly people that do not bite and the welcome mat is always out. Weather: Hello again everyone, guest speaker and apprentice Sarah here. The weather was promising as we started off the day with a light West wind, but weather did like weather does and the winds changed to a dreaded constant South. Whispy cirrus and pillowing cumulus battled the haze for ownership over the sky. The fight was settled at a truce as the haze claimed the East, limiting our visibility to 5km, and the clouds claimed the West giving us an ideal 10km visibility. Raptor Observations: We all started off the morning at the edge of our seats, and not because of the yellow jackets this time, but in anticipation, as we hoped the Broad-wing numbers would carry over into today. Unfortunately, to our dismay, they never came. Two of them teased us in the early morning like a fisherman getting a bite, giving us a little hope, but hope was all it was. As Andrew often says “the birds by association” aka the Northern Harrier, made themselves known again today by beating out yesterday’s record total. We counted 22 Harriers while they mostly traveled in their close knit pairs. And of course, our favorite little sharpies continued to move today sometimes even in groups, throuples, and couples like they were headed for a Friday night out on the town. Non-raptor Observations: The blue jays are still making their way down South. They started off the morning with high numbers and huge groups, but as the afternoon rolls around so does the midday lull. They ended the day with an impressing number of 18,300 total. The gulls and terns conducted business as usual and my favorite Lake Erie local, the Pied-billed grebe went about his day diving and fishing throughout the river. Predictions: Tomorrows forcast is looking a little warmer with a high of 27C with winds from the SSW at a possible high of 16km/h. Hopefully we get good weather and good winds for a good hawk push for the weekends festivities at HawkFest. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jessie Fletcher (jessica_fletcher@fws.gov) 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-2022