Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 10, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 5604 24015 31299 Osprey 0 1 15 Bald Eagle 5 13 44 Northern Harrier 10 42 274 Sharp-shinned Hawk 63 615 3491 Cooper's Hawk 1 15 39 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 39 42 Broad-winged Hawk 0 28 67320 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 30 355 536 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 1 5 5 American Kestrel 21 69 824 Merlin 0 11 36 Peregrine Falcon 5 17 38 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 5741 25225 103963 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7.33 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Mark Hainen, Sarah deGuise Visitors: We are located by the boat launch in Lake Erie Metropark in a fenced off area at the Hawk Watch site. This does not mean that we do not welcome interaction with any and all visitors. We enjoy talking about what we do and sharing our knowledge with beginners and experts alike. Please feel free to come up and talk to us. We usually have our backs turned to the parking lot as we scan the skies in front of us. This should not be interpreted as a sign of reluctance to engage; this is how we do our job. We have friendly people that do not bite and the welcome mat is always out. Weather: The light winds in the morning hours did not prove to be a hinderance to the birds that chose to move today. The winds were directionally favorable to start the day but our fortunes faded significantly as the winds changed. We saw a 180-degree shift during the watch with northern winds to start and southern winds at day’s end. The southern winds did end our turkey vulture count for the most part as they took a course more to the north, obscured by trees and an appreciable haze that made viewing difficult. Temperatures broke the 60 barrier by a couple of degrees. The barometer rose in the morning hours and then turned south as well, dropping four hundredths of an inch. There were a few whitecaps out on Lake Erie, so due to the fetch of the lake there was a considerable push from the winds that the birds had to contend with. They chose not to fight it and used a different course dropping from four digit counts to two digits in the last two hours. Raptor Observations: Turkey vultures put on a show this morning. We always wish that our visitors could witness the stately procession of these birds as hundreds of them pass directly overhead. It would make everyone’s lives easier if, instead of pointing out distant specks in the sky, we could tell people to put the binoculars down and just look up. Long trains of the birds passed nearby as they played follow the leader out of Canada. We totaled 5,604 TV’s today. It could have been more had the winds not changed. Sharp-shins occupy their normal second place position with 63 specimens taken. Red-tailed hawks took the bronze with 30 birds counted. There are more adult birds being seen but still a fair number of juvies. The kestrels seemed to like the southern wind as most of their 21 members were counted in the later hours. Harriers numbered 10, some traveling high in the sky, others mere inches off the lake surface. Bald eagles and peregrine falcons were tied at five apiece. The last observation was of a peregrine just over the water’s surface that was racing by too fast to identify until it seemed to take a dip at something in the water and then pulled up, revealing its unmistakable profile. Red-shouldered hawks and Cooper’s hawks numbered one each and a subadult golden eagle was caught trying to sneak by in a long stream of turkey vultures. Non-raptor Observations: Blue jays are still coming but numbering in the hundreds instead of thousands at our site. There were a number of Forster’s terns seen fishing this morning and perhaps a common tern as well. The pelicans made an appearance in diminished numbers today but some did settle in the water in the shelter of the rock jetty by Celeron Island. Large flights of cormorants were seen winging their way to their winter grounds today. A Carolina wren was working on its repertoire behind us. A local red-bellied woodpecker also made a cameo appearance. Predictions: Tomorrow night may see some rain but it should be after the watch. The barometer will remain fairly high before plunging on Wednesday when more rain is predicted. Cloud cover should increase during the day and they should be of the precipitation bearing kind with eventual near total coverage. Temperatures will hit the seventy mark if any of this is to be believed. Winds will be from the generally SW area, thus the high temps, and growing from about five mph to 13. We will see if birds take the opportunity to move before the rain comes but the southern wind direction is not too promising for DRHW. ======================================================================== 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-2022