Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 01, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 0 0 0 Bald Eagle 0 0 0 Northern Harrier 1 1 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 0 0 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 0 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 22 22 22 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 7 7 7 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 3 3 3 Merlin 0 0 0 Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 1 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 34 34 34 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, Erika Van Kirk, Frank Kitakis, Jerry Jourdan, Michelle Peregord 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: “The voice of the turtle is heard in our land”, as the late, great Ernie Harwell would recite every year, opening a new season for the Detroit Tigers. Today we opened a new season of hawk counting at the Lake Erie Metro Park, and staying in the baseball idiom, riding on the shoulders of a northerly starting wind, we won the opening-day game. The past few years have been a coin toss as to whether we would sit through a blazing hot remnant of summer, or hopefully, have a hint-of-fall day with favorable winds. We lucked out this year with the latter. The winds did take quite a swing around the compass, starting north and ending southeast, probably hurting our totals. The wind strength was in our sweet spot of seven to nine mph. As the wind was passing through the easterly stage, the convective cumulus clouds that form on the edge of the lake became more prominent in the sky over us, darkening on the bottom to an almost ominous shade of blue-gray, although I don’t think any of us actually felt threatened. Temperatures reached a peak of seventy-six degrees, which was tempered in our location as the wind blew off the lake in the afternoon hours. A reminder that when hawk-watching, you should keep two more layers than you think necessary in the car just as best practice. The barometer is beginning a gradual decline which should culminate in a rainy period in a couple of days. It stayed in the 30.2” range today but the downward trend had begun by late afternoon. It was a pleasant Labor Day, made more pleasant by the reunion with old friends, all of whom had managed to suppress the memories of more malign days sitting for hours in freezing winds with little to show for it. Raptor Observations: It’s always good to see broadwings on the first day as the waft their way south, taking their time at a pace we wish we could emulate in our own frenetic lives. We managed to put twenty-two of them on the clicker today, usually two or three at a time. Seven red-tails flew over, although we are a little wary that there may be locals patrolling their territories, as some were headed in the wrong direction and were not counted. Three kestrels scooted by and there may have been a fourth as we got a brief glimpse of another small falcon with not enough time to determine whether kestrel or merlin. The kestrels appeared dark today due to lighting conditions and that is usually an indication of merlin so it remained an Unknown Falcon. We had one harrier in the late afternoon. We did see bald eagles and osprey but those were deemed local and not counted. Cooper’s hawks were present, but they were seen multiple times in the usual haunts for our local birds. Non-raptor Observations: The non-raptor side of things was interesting. We were greeted by the sight of hundreds of purple martins amassed in the dead trees close to the hawk watch. They seem to disburse during the day as is their wont, but swifts and swallows of various persuasions took their place, although in smaller numbers. Warblers were reported on the trails. Cormorants are there in some numbers but not the large conglomerations that seem to form a little later in the season. A kingfisher made a few appearances. Both a great blue heron and great egret flew by. The largest wingspans we saw belonged to a flight of approximately forty-five American white pelicans headed north out over the lake. Pied-billed grebes, a common sighting at the watch, were also noted. Three mute swans made a cameo appearance. A yellow -shafted northern flicker undulated over. Today was a very good day for monarch butterflies as we notched 129 of them. Predictions: Tomorrow has a favorable wind… during the early morning predawn hours. Unfortunately, when we begin the watch, the wind will shift to the southeast side of things and grow in strength, staying in the five to eight mph range. Usually, this carries the wind-surfing birds (broadwings) to the north of us. Although we generally don’t expect large numbers of them this early, the premature evacuators are flying already in twos and threes as we witnessed today. Sunny skies are expected with temps about the same as today. The barometer will be falling, crossing the 30-inch barrier late in the afternoon. ======================================================================== 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