Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 14, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 1 5 5 Bald Eagle 2 21 21 Northern Harrier 23 95 95 Sharp-shinned Hawk 96 503 503 Cooper's Hawk 3 6 6 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 4102 14008 14008 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 6 58 58 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 90 220 220 Merlin 5 16 16 Peregrine Falcon 0 14 14 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 1 1 Total: 4328 14949 14949 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Andrew Sturgess Observers: Bill Peregord, Dan Atherton, Don Sherwood, Michelle Peregord, Natalie Cypher, Paul Cypher, Rosemary Brady 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: A delayed start to the watch, as fog dropped an impenetrable curtain over the area. Not an auspicious start to the day, but as we learned, the best was yet to come. Another with a jagged wind strength and direction graph. North-northeast winds started us off, but gradually veered around compass to a more easterly wind as the day progressed. It was waffling, even then, as sometimes we could feel the wind off the lake for a time, and then as it went a little more south, not so much. It reached ten mph during its spin around the compass and created some interesting flight lines that we had not seen before. The wind helped to temper the hot sun which was unimpeded by any significant cloud formation. The temperature reached the eighty-degree mark. The barometer said we are still in a high-pressure zone. Raptor Observations: Although it did not seem like we would see many broadwings in the early hours today, they did arrive in numbers. The confusion was about where they were coming from. The first streams were noted very high overhead, forcing us to look into the sun while counting. We had no advance warning of the presence of these birds as we had seen no kettles on the other side of the slip. The eastern winds with a slight southern flavor eventually moved the birds to the north, but the interesting thing was that the birds were coming from a northwest direction back towards us, then kettling and tacking to the west. Most of them generally track from a more easterly direction to the west. “Surprise, surprise!” As Gomer Pyle used to say. We ended the day with four thousand, one hundred and two BWs. We knew that the sharpies and kestrels were on the move as both nearly topped the century mark. The shins taking the silver with ninety-six, kestrels close behind with ninety. Northern harriers were mostly traveling two by two, as they are wont to do, although we ended on an odd number of them with twenty-three counted. Five feisty merlins were noted, spreading fear in the sky. Red-tails numbered six today. Three Cooper’s hawks made the clicker, as did two bald eagles and one osprey. Non-raptor Observations: We were deeply saddened to not see the pelicans today, although we got over it. Caspian terns were on the prowl, but silent today. Our resident egret was plying his trade in front of us. Truthfully, we had little time to look for other birds as once we noted the overhead broadwings, we went into neck-stretching mode looking directly up. We had our best day of monarch butterfly counting today with five hundred and seventy-six. They seem to enjoy the same winds as the feathered migrants. Predictions: Tomorrow looks to be similar to today. Favorable winds to start the day from the northeast, turning later in the day to the east. Strength will be moderate, less than ten mph, if the forecast holds. They always seem to get the temperature spot on, but winds don’t read forecasts. The temperature should be near the eighty-degree mark again. I hope our run of good fortune continues, sharpies, harriers and kestrels should be busy, and if the pipeline has more broadwings, bring them on! ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jerry Jourdan (jerry.jourdan@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