Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 30, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 1721 1721 Osprey 0 7 7 Bald Eagle 0 67 67 Northern Harrier 1 171 171 Sharp-shinned Hawk 8 1954 1954 Cooper's Hawk 0 7 7 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 2 2 Broad-winged Hawk 0 75148 75148 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Red-tailed Hawk 0 118 118 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 2 528 528 Merlin 2 21 21 Peregrine Falcon 0 12 12 Unknown Accipitrine 0 5 5 Unknown Buteo 0 18 18 Unknown Falcon 0 2 2 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 15 15 Total: 13 79797 79797 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 13:30:00 Total observation time: 5.5 hours Official Counter: Gracie Sangmeister Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bella Maiwurm, Don Sherwood, Rebekah Graham Visitors: We welcome visitors to our site at the Lake Erie Metropark Boat Launch. We are always willing to discuss the events of the day. Let us share our enthusiasm with you. There will be busy days, that may require our full attention, but those are not that frequent, and they provide great thrills for all. We can predict good days to some degree, but the exact hour is up to the birds, so be prepared to put in some time for the best results. Pack a lunch😊 Weather: As far as the birds go, it was all quiet on the Western Front. Not so quiet aurally, as we were treated to the dulcet tones of both the monthly siren test for Fermi II, and the machinegun-like sound of the pile driver again. The day was overcast with occasional darkening of segments of the sky that made rain seem imminent, it did not arrive until the mid-afternoon hours. The barometer waffled a little, actually rising a little before resuming a downward trend. The temperature reached seventy degrees. The winds�therein lies the rub, came out of the south, or south-southwest all day. In the seven to nine mph range, it had moved some of the water from our slip up to Buffalo and created a choppy lake. Raptor Observations: Those of you with triskaidekaphobia might want to skip this part of the report. We only managed thirteen birds today. Eight were sharpies, kestrels and merlins tied for the second-place award with two apiece, and a gray ghost northern harrier brought up the rear. Non-raptor Observations: The pelicans were present today but in much fewer numbers than yesterday. Some of them were seen in the cormorant horde that was eating at the Lake Erie Golden Corral. A few warblers were seen in the trees nearby, blackpoll, butter-butts and maggies being among their number. The Forster�s terns continue to dive with abandon in the slip. The Caspian terns have moved over to waters behind one of the Gibraltar islands. Bella and Mark almost came to blows over the ancestry of a gull perched on a channel marker buoy. Gulls are hard, and it was a very slow watch. Blue jays made a rebound from their surprisingly low numbers yesterday. Today we had two thousand, three-hundred and forty-seven pass by. A lone monarch was noted. Predictions: Tomorrow will be a continuation of today�s system with full cloud cover, projected rain at some point during the day, and a falling barometer that should bottom out tomorrow evening. The barometer will rebound strongly with northerly winds coming with the high-pressure moving in. This bodes well, although the winds may not favor our site. The weekend looks better than tomorrow. The temperature tomorrow will be seventy-six, winds will be out of the south again, reaching higher speeds than today. The rain is predicted to come after the watch, but I think the birds will pass on this opportunity, the same as 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