Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 07, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 0 9 9 Bald Eagle 0 1 1 Northern Harrier 0 12 12 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 25 25 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 0 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 187 187 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 10 10 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 0 27 27 Merlin 0 0 0 Peregrine Falcon 0 2 2 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: 0 274 274 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Alex Gilford, Andrew Sturgess, 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: There are special days when the stunning beauty of your surroundings will overcome the relative lack of success in your endeavors. This was not one of those days. More like; now is the summer of our discontent, as we counted zero, with a Z, birds. The tea leaves did not read well last night and most of the forecast came to pass; building winds from the SW, eventually reaching eighteen mph, with a falling barometer that did not quite drop as much as predicted but still fell a couple of tenths. Our site was partially sheltered from the wind but on the open lake it was high enough on the Beaufort Scale to generate white horses on top of the waves. Clouds tried to hang on by their toenails but the whole sky was visibly moving with the bossy winds. Our reverie was occasionally disturbed by the sounds of severe weather warnings on our phones as a line of thunderstorms to the west of us threatens. The barometer should complete its predicted drop as this weather approaches later this evening. Raptor Observations: There’s no way I can spin zero birds. Non-raptor Observations: The usual coterie of gulls and cormorants seemed a little reluctant to take to the sky today, although there were a few volunteers. Usually, on a day like today it is common to see our local eagles up taking the airs but we saw only a few widespread solo flyers. On the lake, our number of pied-bill grebes seems to have multiplied with four or five seen today. Our cedar waxwings, few in number but busy nonetheless, are still making life tough on the insects near their tree. A few hummingbirds were seen today, perhaps the only migrants we saw. Before the winds started to pick up, the stillness of the hot, humid morning was punctuated by the frequent sounds of Caspian terns plunging into the water in search of perch entrees. Predictions: If I had to choose between tomorrow or Thursday, I would probably take the later day. The barometer will still be low tomorrow but will be gradually climbing off its lowest point tonight. Winds will be westerly and fairly robust heading up to fifteen mph. The temperatures will be nearly fifteen degrees lower, thankfully. On Thursday the upward angle of the barometric pressure is steeper and the winds will shift to the NW at a more moderate rate which may indicate better results for us. ======================================================================== 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