Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 19, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 8 60 60 Osprey 0 9 9 Bald Eagle 1 21 21 Northern Harrier 8 83 83 Sharp-shinned Hawk 133 1311 1311 Cooper's Hawk 0 6 6 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 4777 31486 31486 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 3 97 97 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 35 338 338 Merlin 1 13 13 Peregrine Falcon 1 9 9 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: 4967 33433 33433 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Mark Hainen, 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: Guest writer Sarah here again for the last time before we are back to our regularly scheduled program. Summer seems to be holding on as the temperature held around 28°C for most of the day. While we chased the shade the westerly 26km/h winds keep us cool, as well as pushed the birds in our direction. The clouds left the sky early in the morning making it hard to spot the high flying birds but thats nothing a master counter cant fix. Raptor Observations: We started off the morning a little slow but the our favorite little Sharpies finally made their way in our direction which was only the start to what turned out to be a fantastic day. We had a good Broad-wing push around lunch time with 457 birds in a kettle but as the hour ended, so did the birds. The Kestrels and Sharpies continued to migrate across the count site which kept things interesting, but just as we were about to pack it up for the day we heard a gasp from the visiting crowd and that gasp turned out to be 4292 Broad-wings! Even though the sky was covered in a harsh blue the kettling birds covered the sky like a storm cloud. Non-raptor Observations: The booming pile driver across the lake continued again today but thankfully only for a short amount of time. The Blue jays are still continuing to move but in lesser numbers than they have been. The jays act as a good indicator for where a bird of prey might be as the jays would scatter from the trees franticly trying to find a safe space away from the talons of a possible Peregrine. Predictions: Tomorrow is looking similar to today with mild winds and higher temperatures, the winds look like they are switching from a NNW wind to a SW wind. Tomorrow night might bring in some scattered thunderstorms which will also bring some cooler weather which will be nice for us at the count site. ======================================================================== 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