Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 01, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 1346 1346 57149 Osprey 0 0 24 Bald Eagle 1 1 68 Northern Harrier 3 3 356 Sharp-shinned Hawk 22 22 6406 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 39 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 15 15 333 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 21973 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 254 254 1869 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 1 Golden Eagle 6 6 21 American Kestrel 0 0 1068 Merlin 0 0 49 Peregrine Falcon 0 0 56 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: 1647 1647 89413 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7.5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: 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: Today was one of those spectacular fall days when the sun first greets you and blinds you, impeding your view in one moment, and the next moment it is obscured but high-lighting the nooks and crannies of a jumbled assortment of multi-colored cumulus clouds with various oddly shaped daubs and wisps mixed into the fold. Complex, constantly evolving, cloud formations never fail to fascinate and create wonder at the myriad structures that nature creates. (We spend a lot of time contemplating clouds, obviously.) Although the weather apps told us that the wind was wobbling between WSW and WNW, it only varied a few degrees as the wind turbines were fairly consistent in their heading into the wind. Temperatures did climb to the high forties and the winds did not really penetrate the wind-break behind us so we did not suffer. The barometer was almost constant today, just over thirty inches, with only a small downward change later in the afternoon Raptor Observations: The small changes in the wind direction and strength did cause some indecision of the part of the migrants as to what was the path of least resistance. They came north and south, high and low, and most places in between. It was fragmented and hard to follow at times. Nevertheless, we managed to track one thousand, three hundred and forty-six turkey vultures today. A number that was distributed unevenly over the final seven hours of the watch. Red-tailed hawks were today’s star as they exploded like popcorn over the trees in front of us. We totaled two hundred and fifty-five kernels. Their buteo brethren, the red-shouldered hawks, could only muster fifteen birds. Golden eagles were on the move with six tallied, one bald eagle was also noted. Three northern harriers made tonight’s report. Sharpies were present in a count of twenty-two. No falcons were seen today. Non-raptor Observations: Forster’s terns made a visit today, along with a few Bonaparte’s gulls. Crows were moving today on different paths at times, not in huge numbers but still quite a few. Two common loons were seen flying over today. A couple of flocks of cedar waxwings were seen flying over in the morning hours. Predictions: Tomorrow looks to be very similar to today with varying levels of cloud cover, winds varying in strength from the western quarter and temperatures rising only to the mid-forties. The barometer should continue to edge up and stay above 30 inches all day. The winds should be a little stronger as predicted but those predictions usually fail to show the up and down nature of the gusts so the push may not be as bad on the birds. Hopefully, we will see similar results to today’s flight. ======================================================================== 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