Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 05, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 5 449 65242 Osprey 0 0 16 Bald Eagle 0 0 65 Northern Harrier 0 2 377 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 8 5845 Cooper's Hawk 0 1 68 Northern Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 18 351 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 67350 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 178 3187 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 2 19 American Kestrel 0 0 981 Merlin 0 2 70 Peregrine Falcon 0 1 61 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: 5 661 143633 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood 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: In the time-honored tradition of The Beatings Will Continue Until the Moral Improves, we dutifully assumed the position this morning. Strangely, when we came to a collective decision to leave after deciding we could no longer endure any more of the wind’s beatdown, our morale improved. Go figure…The southern winds that have reduced our counts to single digits the last two days may be finally singing the showstopper tune reserved for the finale, leaving us with one singular sensation, relief. Unfortunately, this tune will last for two days so we are not quite out of the woods yet. The wind speeds should peak this evening and fall tomorrow, but not enough to get to single digits. Barometric pressure, which was plunging by the hour today should rebound on Sunday. The myriad forms of cloud that populated the sky today, each associated with a different level of the atmosphere, should be on their way out of town during the night. Raptor Observations: Another day of single digits, both in species and number counted. We did manage to snag 5 turkey vultures that played hide and seek in the treetops staying low out of the wind as much as possible. Non-raptor Observations: A quiet day on the non-raptor front as well. The local gulls were flying just above the water where the wind was presumably a little calmer. It was challenging for most of the birds we saw trying to maintain some form of stability in the gusting winds that had whitecaps dancing on the lake. The local red-tail and a local eagle showed that they were not immune to the turbulence, performing corrective aerial maneuvers you rarely see with those species. Predictions: The barometer will be rising tomorrow, breaking the 30” mark by the end of day. It should be a sunny day during the watch hours with temperatures reaching the mid-sixties. Winds will subside from their highs today but stay around the 10-mph range, shifting slightly to the southwest. Hopefully, this shift in direction will cause the birds to come further south before turning west to cross the river. At this point, we will take any change as a possible improvement since it can’t get much worse. Monday and Tuesday hold much more promise with winds coming from a more northerly direction. ======================================================================== 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