Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 15, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 1 3890 59693 Osprey 0 0 24 Bald Eagle 0 9 76 Northern Harrier 1 15 368 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 125 6529 Cooper's Hawk 0 3 42 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 4 110 428 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 21973 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 42 1388 3003 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 2 Golden Eagle 1 39 54 American Kestrel 0 0 1068 Merlin 0 12 61 Peregrine Falcon 2 6 62 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 53 5598 93384 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Alex Gilford, Andrew Sturgess, Rosemary Brady, Shourjya Majumder 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 swear there was a sun with a small cloud in front of it on today’s forecast when I looked at it this morning. The only blue sky we saw today was well off in the distance as our sky grew progressively more hostile looking as the day went on. Graupel pelted us from time to time in the afternoon just to reinforce the bleak atmosphere. Impenetrable nimbostratus clouds kept it dark making bird identification more of a challenge. Winds were consistently from the W, rising in strength up into double digits before tailing off slightly in the final hour. We did not reach forty degrees on the thermometer, spending a cold day in the thirties. The barometer also managed to reach the thirties but just barely. The promised “clearing” never arrived, only additional uglier and darker clouds amassed as the hours past. Raptor Observations: The raptors seem to have established a pattern lately where they are slow off the mark, pass through in the middle of the day and then shut down as if a switch had been thrown. We did not break our duck in the first hour and only managed two birds in the second hour. The red-tails picked up the pace for the next three hours and we ended with forty-two on the day. Four red-shoulders were noted among them. Only one turkey vulture was seen; probably not the last one for the season but who knows. One northern harrier made the passage into the headwind, passing low over the water to avoid the wind as they often do. Two peregrine falcons were seen in the hood. Two sharpies were also tallied. One golden eagle was soaring in the winds, in no apparent hurry to fight into an opposing wind. Most of the birds had to work fairly hard today with lots of flapping required to make headway. Non-raptor Observations: Three pied-billed grebes were seen diving together in front of us. Two common loons were seen flying together high in the sky. There were lots of gulls up in the sky today. Most did not seem to be hawking insects but merely riding the winds back and forth. On a dark day they got more looks than they deserved as they did their best raptor imitations. Bonaparte’s gulls worked the slip looking for minnows. Many more ducks are being seen on the lake. It isn’t always possible to ID the species but we suspect the majority may be scaup. Predictions: It looks like tomorrow may hold more promise for raptor sighting. The winds may be the fly in the ointment, as per usual. Starting from the WSW they will switch to a more southerly direction but they should stay below eight mph for most of the day. The skies should clear, finally. The barometer will be rising again. Temperatures will be similar to todays. If all of this happens on schedule, I would expect to see a similar pattern of movement today with a slow start and the middle hours producing the most birds. This is if the winds do not increase too much. There is more rain coming on Wednesday with another dip in the barometer so not much to look forward to then. ======================================================================== 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