Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 18, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 12 50 50 Osprey 0 16 16 Bald Eagle 1 13 13 Northern Harrier 5 70 70 Sharp-shinned Hawk 44 651 651 Cooper's Hawk 1 4 4 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 948 12560 12560 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 8 29 29 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 22 335 335 Merlin 0 3 3 Peregrine Falcon 1 11 11 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: 1042 13743 13743 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 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: I have registered a complaint with the National Weather Service concerning their forecasting ability. They, in turn, threw some shade on my forecasting abilities. We agreed to disagree. There seemed to be very favorable conditions for good raptor movement today. NE winds were there but a tad too strong for our site. A cold front with an accompanying cloud formation passed through at the start of the watch. From then on, the temperatures rose and the humidity and cloud levels dropped, until we had a classic high pressure, cloudless sky. Barometer stayed well above thirty inches but dropped a little towards the end of the watch. The winds were higher than predicted by a few mph and that was enough to affect the flight line and push it south. Raptor Observations: We seemed to have a good start to the day with broadwings showing up in the first hour. They usually arrive fashionably late so it was a good omen to see over two hundred first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, things did not get much better and the larger kettles never materialized. We were getting reports from a satellite location further to the south and they did better than us but the large movements we usually associate with this date did not show. We ended with just under a thousand broad-wings at nine hundred and forty-eight counted. On certain days, we would have been happy with that number but not today. The rest of the flight seemed subdued today as well. After over three hundred sharpies yesterday, we dropped to forty-four today. Our kestrel count today actually increased to twenty-two. Eight red-tailed hawks flew high overhead. Twelve turkey vultures seemed to expend no effort in passing through. One Cooper’s hawk was counted. Our only other falcon was a young peregrine seen in passing. Five northern harriers rowed their way past. One bald eagle was deemed to be migratory. Non-raptor Observations: The most distinctive observation today was the larger number of gulls very high in the sky apparently hawking insects. At times it was difficult to sort through them to find the raptors hidden in their midst. The rest of the sky seemed relatively quiet although we are noting a few more blue jays but no migrating flocks as of yet. Even our terns seemed to have moved out of the immediate area today. We did see a great blue heron stop to pick up a fish and consume it. Film at eleven. Monarchs were down today as their numbers tend to follow the raptor numbers. Predictions: Tomorrow should see a slow beginning to the change in weather in which precipitation is almost certain during the first few days of the week. It should be sunny but the barometer will start a gradual decline as a large low pressure area approaches. Winds are predicted to start NE but soon change to SE and gradually rise in strength. It’s hard to say what this may bring but it seems to be two strikes against again. The winds are not predicted to exceed ten mph but that is a fairly strong wind to a raptor riding the winds. Hard to say about sharpies and kestrels given the wild swings of the last few days but hoping a mad rush for the exits before the rain comes. ======================================================================== 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