Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 12, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 0 9 9 Bald Eagle 0 3 3 Northern Harrier 0 20 20 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 38 38 Cooper's Hawk 1 1 1 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 222 222 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 11 11 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 1 44 44 Merlin 0 0 0 Peregrine Falcon 1 4 4 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 5 353 353 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Mark Hainen 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: Although we are technically too late for astronomical dog days of summer, those having passed in July and August, this type of day is usually what people refer to as being one. Lazy, hazy, hot and humid, a day to be endured rather than celebrated. Temperatures and humidity were high enough to make it an uncomfortable experience and the wind was an unreliable friend in making it more tolerable. It was even less of a friend in allowing birds to wander by our observation post. Rising and falling from the WSW or SW, it had the trees dancing again at times but would fall quicker than we would have preferred. Not that we wanted to see fewer birds, but we would have liked to have been more comfortable while bemoaning the fact that we were seeing so few birds. Momma said there’d be days like this. Raptor Observations: The pickings were slim on this summer-like day. We had one peregrine and one kestrel to represent the falcon contingent. The accipiter family had two volunteers, one Cooper’s hawk and one sharp-shinned. One buteo was notched in our belt, a red-tailed hawk. A disappointing tally for a day’s work. The highlight of the day for raptor observations was a couple of contretemps between a subadult eagle and a red-tailed hawk. Over Celeron Island they each took a couple of passes at each other until the eagle dropped on the red-tailed with apparent malign intent. This caused the red-tail to decide that discretion was the better part of valor and he sought sanctuary in the nearest oak tree at a high rate of speed. This battle was resumed later on as they flew high above us crossing the slip. The end result was the same with the red-tail in fast retreat. The eagle may have just been playing but you don’t tug on Superman’s cape unless you are prepared for the consequences. Non-raptor Observations: We had four hundred and forty-five monarch butterflies on September 10th. With the adverse winds of the last two days, we have had five and six respectively. Number five landed on Birthday-Boy Kevin’s knee today, apparently tired from swimming upwind. We did see a pair of sandhill cranes in a synchronized pas de deux over Celeron Island this morning. A warbling vireo provided the soundtrack. Warblers are still present on the trails at the Metropark. The gulls were up in abundance today flying with erratic moves from time to time as they changed course to capture insects. Predictions: The barometer is predicted to rise overnight only to take a steep drop during Monday and Tuesday with probable rain coinciding with the bottom of the curve. Clouds will be the order of the day for the next three days with an underlying threat of rain, if not a promise on Tuesday night. Winds will be mostly easterly tomorrow with temperatures about ten degrees lower than today, if not more. Hopefully, when this disturbance passes through on the back side of it, we will get some good movement. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Kevin Georg (kevin.l.georg@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