Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 25, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 745 57167 58888 Osprey 0 4 11 Bald Eagle 0 35 102 Northern Harrier 0 185 356 Sharp-shinned Hawk 8 1433 3387 Cooper's Hawk 0 37 44 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 206 208 Broad-winged Hawk 0 33 75181 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 2 Red-tailed Hawk 8 1059 1177 Rough-legged Hawk 0 4 4 Golden Eagle 2 17 17 American Kestrel 0 212 740 Merlin 0 20 41 Peregrine Falcon 0 23 35 Unknown Accipitrine 0 1 6 Unknown Buteo 4 28 46 Unknown Falcon 0 1 3 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 7 22 Total: 768 60473 140270 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours Official Counter: Bella Maiwurm Observers: Don Sherwood, Erika Van Kirk, Rebekah Graham Visitors: We welcome visitors to our site at the Lake Erie Metropark Boat Launch. We are always willing to discuss the events of the day. Let us share our enthusiasm with you. There will be busy days, that may require our full attention, but those are not that frequent, and they provide great thrills for all. We can predict good days to some degree, but the exact hour is up to the birds, so be prepared to put in some time for the best results. Pack a lunch 👻 Weather: Mr. Sandburg's fog arrived quietly on little cat feet overnight, enveloping Lake Erie Metropark in her looming, solemn presence. The count was delayed by an hour until she saw a different harbor and city to occupy and padded on, the heat of the late morning sun illuminating the last foggy puffs of her tail. As a reminder of what had been, the haze on the horizon remained, requiring counters to strain their eyes through granules of nothing to see what few raptors were present with clarity. The sky stayed in a wispy state, covered in wide swaths of gauzy cirrus clouds with some holes of blue. The barometer remained high, perhaps explaining what migration movement we did have in the face of low south and southwest winds. Raptor Observations: The day started with a single sharp-shinned hawk who turned out to be the only one migrating that hour, and was joined across the day by seven more of its compatriots. In the second hour, the turkey vultures came, popping up abruptly all the way at the end of the channel, a northwesterly opening in the landscape where the vultures often start their day and continue in a slow but steady stream. We clicked seven hundred and forty-five of them. Whilst counting down the channel, we picked up a few buteos that crossed with the vultures, mostly red-tails (eight) but with one red-shouldered mixed in. And, to our delight, two golden eagles rode the same flightline and made the whole day worth it�drifting only slightly more laboriously than the vultures across the channel, wings up in a wide V, primaries curled like the ends of an elegantly waxed mustache. Non-raptor Observations: Streams of cormorants graced the skies today, three hundred in number. A flock of eight mute swans crossed the lake twice, one with the wiggly shape of a wry neck. Three great blue herons flew in concert to Celeron, circled there, then came back. Not a single duck was noted outside the usual mallards. Various passerines were heard, including woodpeckers, kinglets, wrens, and sparrows. Only the yellow-rumped warblers remain with us now, and we will enjoy them as long as we can. A mere sixty-three blue jays in varying group sizes migrated, as did five crows who were completely outnumbered by the twenty monarchs who passed by. Predictions: Tomorrow's westerly to northerly winds, high barometer, and partly cloudy skies are nearly on the verge of ideal for this site. Between the pressure and the wind, raptors will receive a boost and a light shove in the right direction, and have partly clear skies to fly in. I wouldn't be surprised to tomorrow brought a few more raptors our way compared to today's numbers. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Erika Van Kirk (erika_vankirk@fws.gov) 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