Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 22, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 3159 52912 54633 Osprey 0 4 11 Bald Eagle 3 32 99 Northern Harrier 3 172 343 Sharp-shinned Hawk 18 1364 3318 Cooper's Hawk 2 32 39 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 43 177 179 Broad-winged Hawk 0 32 75180 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 2 Red-tailed Hawk 185 849 967 Rough-legged Hawk 1 4 4 Golden Eagle 1 12 12 American Kestrel 0 212 740 Merlin 0 20 41 Peregrine Falcon 0 23 35 Unknown Accipitrine 0 1 6 Unknown Buteo 3 17 35 Unknown Falcon 0 1 3 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 7 22 Total: 3418 55872 135669 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Gracie Sangmeister Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bella Maiwurm, Erika Van Kirk, Johannes Postma, Rebekah Graham, Rosemary Brady 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: The day fittingly wrapped up to the tune of Bill Wither�s �Lovely Day�, carried across the water from the nicknamed Maroon House. Great playlist Maroon House folks, we appreciate the Aretha Franklin and Frank Sinatra hits as well. Morning began with a deep blue sky, nonexistent wind, temperature around forty-five degrees Fahrenheit, and barometer hovering around thirty point two six. Our counters spent most of the day picking raptors out of the ocean above, cumulus clouds providing slight relief in the last two hours. Winds and temperatures both rose throughout the day, peaking at nine mph and sixty-eight degrees. The barometer on the other hand remained mostly steady, dropping only three-hundreths of an inch. Raptor Observations: Today, the visitors brought all the luck. For two folks that had never been to a hawk watching site before? Well, the stream of turkey vultures just pivoted their line to be low, right overhead. A visitor who just arrived at the site? The one to spot the first and only light morph rough-legged hawk of the day. Someone hoping to see their lifer golden eagle? Absolutely, we have an immature scheduled to fly over now. What a treat to share these birds with people! The turkey vultures swapped near and far lines a few times, with ultimately three thousand one hundred and fifty-nine birds flapping south. Red-tails had their second-best day of the season thus far with one hundred and eighty-five. Red-shoulders and sharpies mixed in with the kettles as well, with forty-three and eighteen, respectively. Bald eagles and northern harriers both with three, the Cooper�s hawk two falling just short of a three way tie. The immature golden eagle and light morph roughie rounded out the raptors. Non-raptor Observations: The day's non-raptors included three woodpecker species, both kinds of kinglet, mallards, wood ducks, two species of sparrow, only one type of warbler (the ever prevalent butterbutt), and a smattering of others that reached twenty-seven non-raptor species in total. Of particular note were fifty white pelicans continuing to hang out on the lake and over three hundred double-crested cormorants that arrived in a neat line before whiffling below the treeline. A single peregrine was also observed bopping around and generally exhibiting non-migratory behavior. Three hundred and ten blue jays and four hundred sixty-eight crows used the light winds to continue south. For non-birds, we had quick looks at a beaver that swam quite close past the picnic tables and six optimistic monarchs raced the cold weather. Predictions: Tomorrow breaks the sunny weather pattern of the last few days by starting with fog that lets up into partly cloudy skies with a high of 63F. Winds will stay northeast for the morning and into early afternoon before shifting more easterly and southerly in the four to six range. The barometer will stay quite high between 30.35" and 30.39". The last few days have been a slow start for the raptors and tomorrow's fog may keep them down for longer. Otherwise, little else seems to keep the turkey vultures away, and I wouldn't be surprised to see more emerge from the fading fog tomorrow. ======================================================================== 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