On days like today, it is

Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 11, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 22 1516 5634 Osprey 0 3 22 Bald Eagle 0 9 43 Northern Harrier 1 88 284 Sharp-shinned Hawk 51 1004 3918 Cooper's Hawk 0 3 14 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 2 7 Broad-winged Hawk 0 10 22232 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 24 85 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 1 American Kestrel 5 80 729 Merlin 3 10 33 Peregrine Falcon 2 13 39 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 85 2762 33042 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Alex Gilford, Andrew Sturgess, Rosemary Brady, Shourjya Majumder Visitors: We are still dealing with the residue of the Covid 19 situation. The workers at the site will be in an enclosed area that is designed for four people only. We still love to interact and share our love of hawk watching with visitors. Feel free to ask questions and look over our shoulders to help you follow the birds. Watch the weather for favorable forecasts as the birds are predictable to some degree based on weather situations. One other thing of note this year; the boat-launch bathroom building has been shut down for the foreseeable future due to plumbing issues. There are Porta-Johns in the parking lot should you require them. Weather: Why is it that they always get the bad forecasts right, the good ones, not so much? Today’s weather was as predicted with fairly strong winds out of the south and the rest is really irrelevant. Another attractive day on the face of it with a lot of sun and various high cloud formations of little mass or consequence. The winds did vary up and down in strength but stayed close enough to ten mph to provide a hard push to any bird foolhardy enough to try a passage close to us. The early high cirrus clouds that we did see were an omen of rain to come in the morning hours. Temperatures reached the mid-seventies with the warm southern air rushing in. The barometer peaked in the morning hours and then fell to 29.82 which is around the low end of our normal range. Raptor Observations: The birds celebrated the holiday near us and took Columbus Day off. It is a holiday that has become somewhat controversial. Some celebrate the arrival of an Italian sailor in the West Indies, others, the indigenous peoples that were affected by his arrival. In Detroit, that’s not how we roll. We like to avoid conflict, much the same as the honoree on our local holiday. This is the day we celebrate the Detriot Lines Mathematical Elimination Day. Like Easter, the actual date of this event each year is a mystery; but we know that it is inevitable, so for consistency’s sake we celebrate it the same October date each year. That’s usually close enough. On days like today, it is good to think of a larger area than our point on the map. Remember that the birds that are on the move are acted on by a persistent force over a long journey, it’s only natural that they should drift with that force and not fight it. That’s why the southern winds are not welcome at our site. The larger buteos and turkey vultures are very scarce on those days. The sharpies are flying sideways when they do come. Today we broke the sharpie half century mark by one. We got some glimpses of scattered flights of turkey vultures but even their normal staging area over Canada was mostly deserted. We totaled twenty-two. Only one northern harrier was spotted today. A surprise red-tailed hawk made a brief appearance. We had another falcon hat-trick with five kestrels, three merlins and two peregrines. Although the kestrels are buffeted about somewhat, the merlins and peregrines pierce through the wind with their sleek aerodynamic profiles. Non-raptor Observations: Another slow day for non-raptor species. We had a small flight of lesser yellow-legs fly over. Our local osprey was seen briefly. Flights of blue jays were seen in the distance but like most birds on the wing today they were pushed out of their normal path to a more northerly route. The local Cooper’s hawk continues to patrol the tree line and stoop on those birds not paying enough attention. Bonaparte’s gulls made a very brief appearance in the morning. Our Caspian terns are still working the area, as are the cormorants who were evident today. Predictions: The forecast is for winds, substantial winds, coming from directions that all start with S. Hmmm. Not what we need. Strengths will be around twelve to thirteen mph, which is stronger than today. There is a forty percent chance of rain in the morning hours, perhaps occurring at the start of the watch but not for long. The barometer will be climbing off its lows and possibly, combined with a wind direction change on Wednesday, we may have a little more luck then. We may see sharpies and falcons tomorrow but I don’t expect a lot of buteos or turkey vultures as they will have been pushed to the north 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-2021