Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 01, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 682 682 2763 Osprey 0 0 28 Bald Eagle 1 1 98 Northern Harrier 2 2 365 Sharp-shinned Hawk 20 20 3043 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 27 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 19 19 51893 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 3 3 149 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 2 American Kestrel 0 0 923 Merlin 0 0 33 Peregrine Falcon 1 1 31 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 0 2 Unknown Falcon 0 0 3 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 3 Total: 728 728 59364 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Jo Patterson Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord, Don Sherwood, Jerry Jourdan 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: Today was a Gordon Lightfoot kind of day, when the gales of November came early, or so it seemed. The temperatures were lower as a result of a fairly robust wind that started northeast, but spent most of the time coming from a more easterly direction off the lake. It was in our face all day, so an application of aloe gel was necessary to prevent the facial skin from turning to human jerky. The temperature reached seventy-one degrees, but it felt a little short of that due to the winds. The cloud cover was mostly due to plane contrails, although some high icy cirrus clouds appeared. Nothing that most people would consider real clouds, providing real shade. Raptor Observations: Nothing to see here, move along. It was a disappointing day, even though we recorded six hundred and eighty-two turkey vultures. Most of them seen in the second hour, or the final hour. We had little to do between those hours with only twenty sharpies moving through. They beat the broadwings by one bird. Three red-tailed hawks rode out the tempest. Only two harriers were seen today. One peregrine and one bald eagle completed the count. Non-raptor Observations: We did see a group of common terns in the morning hours. In the afternoon, a flock of Bonaparte’s gulls gave a flyby. Hopefully, we will see them more often and be able to find a little gull with them. The pelicans were up, but only a handful took to the air. Caspian and Forster’s terns are still present. The blue jays did not let the winds bother them with eleven thousand, five hundred, and seventy counted. Monarchs were fairly rare today, most of the fourteen counted coming in one hour, when the winds slowed a little at the end of the day. The government shutdown may affect our ability to post hourly but we will try to continue to do so. Predictions: The winds should ease tomorrow, staying around the five-mph mark. It may stay mostly east, but wander north or south of that a little. The barometer should remain high. Cloud cover should be present, but it was supposed to be here today and never really arrived. The temperature should be about the same, but a little higher than seventy-degrees. Less wind should be a good thing, as today it was a little too healthy for our site. Hopefully, we won’t have another donut hole in the middle of the day 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