Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 08, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 1411 5529 Osprey 0 2 21 Bald Eagle 0 6 40 Northern Harrier 3 86 282 Sharp-shinned Hawk 48 885 3799 Cooper's Hawk 0 1 12 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 2 7 Broad-winged Hawk 0 9 22231 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 20 81 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 1 American Kestrel 1 71 720 Merlin 0 5 28 Peregrine Falcon 2 11 37 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: 54 2509 32789 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Patrick Mulawa, 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: Today seemed a fitting end to the week from Hell, weatherwise. A bit of this, a bit of that, as if various weather systems had been shaken in a bag and strewn out haphazardly. Look to this side and see sunlit cumulus reminiscent of a pleasant fall day, on the other side thunder could be heard as squall warnings were up on the lake. Various cloud formations were stacked like a torte at times with one layer moving in a contrary direction to the other. Although this looked like a rain-out day all week on the predictions, as usual, they were only partially right. (I’m trying to be kind.) We were driven to take shelter twice during the day by, at times, somewhat heavy showers. The winds were erratic in strength although staying fairly consistent in direction, when actually blowing. The barometer was declining during the day, finally falling below thirty inches as a few days of lower pressure are indicated in the forecast. Raptor Observations: Today did not look promising on paper, nor in person. Of course, the old reliables came, sharp-shins put forth an effort but they seem immune to weather conditions as they are not wind dependent and have to work pretty hard to migrate anyway. Flap and glide, flap and glide, rinse and repeat. Despite our truncated watch, we managed to find forty-eight of them. They were usually pretty high in the sky and sometimes in groups of three or four. On a poor weather day like today, the other expected species are the falcons and harriers, buteos are usually very scarce. We had three northern harriers pass through today. One American kestrel was seen and two peregrines were observed. It was a slow day with large intervals of time between birds. Non-raptor Observations: A slow day for other species too; some blue jays were seen but it was difficult viewing at times with very high humidity and changeable cloud conditions contributing to the issues. We saw our first two flights of crows today, although very modest in number. Our Caspian terns continue to hunt, but the Forster’s terns are possibly at another roosting spot. Butterflies are still coming but in very low numbers today. The mass of cormorants that we saw yesterday seemed to have moved their base camp elsewhere today as few were seen. The swallows were the most obvious bird in the sky today as they continue to provide funeral services for insects within their reach. Predictions: I think I’m getting the yips about predicting. Hopefully the weather will be a little more stable so what you see is what you get. Tomorrow has the dreaded SW wind, weak early but growing to about six mph. If it is not too strong, we may see some birds. The forecast is for partly cloudy but I have fallen for that nonsense before. The humidity will be sky high again and that may come into play causing visibility issues near the lake. As if we had not had enough showers today, the Draconid meteor shower is predicted for tonight. ======================================================================== 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