Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 15, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 37 37 37 Osprey 6 11 11 Bald Eagle 13 34 34 Northern Harrier 21 116 116 Sharp-shinned Hawk 242 745 745 Cooper's Hawk 1 7 7 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 23901 37909 37909 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 12 70 70 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 78 298 298 Merlin 3 19 19 Peregrine Falcon 0 14 14 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 1 1 Total: 24314 39263 39263 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Jo Patterson Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord, Johannes Postma, Mark Hainen 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: In my closing remarks yesterday, I told the broadwings to “Bring it on.” This inspired them to unleash a seemingly endless conveyor belt of birds almost directly over our heads today. There were multiple “OMGs” and at least one “Jeez O’ Pete” heard, all directed at the relentless onslaught of avian traffic. Winds were favorable to begin with, coming from the north, but working their way around the compass, keeping the wind turbines on their toes, ending up in the southeast again. Normally, this wind pushes the birds further to the north, and indeed, there were some spotted, as mere specks, off in that direction in the final minutes. But for the most part, the direction and strength of the wind was perfectly balanced for them to quarter on it. and very little kettling was seen as they were on their way to South America simply by gliding along by holding their wings out. It was a warm day as the temperature reached the high seventies. Cloud conditions were actually helpful to us today as they built from very high cirrus to grey-bottomed cumulus, which dissipated in the last hour. The heavier cloud cover made it much easier for us to find the trail of ant-sized shadows high aloft. Although no two people describe a cloud in the same way, they did provide us with a better backdrop than that of a bright cerulean blue. Raptor Observations: We put in an extra hour today but were forced to retire when all our clickers fell victim to overuse. The reason being that we had twenty-three thousand, nine hundred and one broadwings today. Today was one of those days that “gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.” It was indeed a glorious sight and rare in the fact that it was relatively easily seen, being directly overhead. These are birds that you have to chase all over the sky, small hawks that do not present a significant side profile, resembling horizontal raindrops at times. I did say relatively easy, as it required a village of helpful people to spot the birds and earn the visual reward for all of us. A shout out to them, and special thanks to our counter Jo, who put in a week’s worth of work today. Following the broadwings, in fairly decent numbers, were the shins, with two hundred and forty-two representatives, most on the same flight line as the broadwings. Kestrels took the lower step on the podium with seventy-eight bird speeding through. Twenty-one harriers came by, dribbling two basketballs at once, our analogy used to ID them. Thirteen bald eagles, many in the streams with the broadwings, made the tally. Twelve red-tailed hawks came along for the ride. We started counting turkey vultures today and thirty-seven had captured the moving-day mood. Six ospreys were noted, about half were up in the stream of broadwings. Three merlin were clickered. A single Cooper’s hawk, still confused about not being an accipiter anymore, made the grade. Non-raptor Observations: Today was a day in which everybody was looking nearly straight up, so the Queen Mary may have steamed by and we might have missed it. We had relatively little flack to interfere with our looking for broadwings, some gull traffic, and the swallows were present but not an issue. The monarchs were having a day with five hundred and seventy counted, and there may have been more. No pelicans were seen today. Predictions: Well, if we can’t repeat today’s performance, it won’t be the fault of the predicted winds. Coming mostly from our favored northeast direction, of a moderate strength for most of the watch hours, and ending easterly; if the birds are there and moving, we should see them. It seems almost too much to ask for, but we are needy and greedy by nature. Another hot day with mostly sunny skies. Barometer staying high during the day. A near carbon copy of today, but the predicted winds are, in theory, even better. Let’s hope the pipeline is still full. ======================================================================== 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