Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 15, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 40 999 65664 Osprey 0 0 16 Bald Eagle 0 7 72 Northern Harrier 3 15 390 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 32 5869 Cooper's Hawk 1 13 80 Northern Goshawk 1 1 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 11 114 447 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 67350 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 483 1134 4143 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 0 10 27 American Kestrel 0 0 981 Merlin 0 7 75 Peregrine Falcon 0 2 62 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: 541 2335 145179 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood 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: Today we skipped the opening ceremonies with its sunlit panoramas and went right to drab and dreary overcast skies. The radar did not look promising this morning but the raptors found a dry corridor with an ENE wind that seemed to push them down to the tip of Canada following the shoreline. The wind stayed in the ten to fifteen mph range and shifted to NE just before the rains came, bringing a halt to the flow of raptors and the hawk watch. Temperatures were in the upper half of the thirty-degree range but the winds were in our faces so the real-feels were in the lower half of the range. The barometer stayed above 30 inches but was falling, which it will continue to do in the evening hours. Raptor Observations: Red-tails were the bird of the day. The first couple of hours were a little slow but then they started pouring out of the tip of Canada in kettles of twenty or more. We ended with 483 at day’s end. The flight line shifted with the wind but the weather was taking a turn for the worse at that point and the numbers decreased. There are still a few turkey vultures that didn’t get the memo and we noted 40 of them today in small groups. Red-shouldered hawks came 11 strong. Northern harriers wobbled by in the strong winds 3 times. Sharp-shins came by a couple of times but there may have been more out over the lake unable to resist the push of the winds. A single Cooper’s hawk flew overhead and our second northern goshawk made an appearance. Non-raptor Observations: More tundra swans flew by today. There were long lines of ducks headed in the wrong direction again. They may be moving up the river and floating back down? Mute swans also seem to be taking flight in small groups. Our red-bellied woodpecker continues his Sisyphean task of ferrying tidbits from Gibraltar to the mainland, stocking its caches for the winter. Bonaparte’s gulls, some looking dark like little gulls, due to the gloomy atmosphere, continue to feed nearby. Otherwise, rather quiet, as befits a wintry day at the watch. Predictions: Tomorrow we will have to contend with a more westerly wind at nearly the same strength as today. We should be a little more sheltered from that wind so maybe my face will not feel that it is stretched as tight as a drumskin, as it does now. The barometer should stay just above 30 inches, a drop of three tenths from today’s high. Cloudy skies look to be the order of the day and there is a low percentage chance of rain. The temperature situation will be the same as today with high thirties feeling like low thirties if exposed to the wind. Westerly winds are not our best wind but not our worst either. The strength of the wind may determine whether the birds head into what is really a head wind at our location, or turn to quarter on it before they reach us. ======================================================================== 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 Count data submitted via Dunkadoo - Project info at: https://dunkadoo.org/explore/detroit-river-international-wildlife-refuge/detroit-river-hawk-watch-fall-2022