Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 14, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 20 959 65624 Osprey 0 0 16 Bald Eagle 1 7 72 Northern Harrier 2 12 387 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 30 5867 Cooper's Hawk 0 12 79 Northern Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 9 103 436 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 67350 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 66 651 3660 Rough-legged Hawk 1 1 1 Golden Eagle 2 10 27 American Kestrel 0 0 981 Merlin 0 7 75 Peregrine Falcon 0 2 62 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: 102 1794 144638 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 6.67 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord, Rosemary Brady, 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: Another day with an impressive visual start with midnight blue slabs of clouds on either side of us with an open sky overhead, the sun highlighting the lake and cloud formations. It ended, as did yesterday, with a dull gray blanket covering the entire sky and once again making plumage IDs difficult. The wind was in one of those moods again today, unable to choose a direction and unable to muster much strength. The wind turbines finally gave up and stayed scattered in different directions, either not turning, or lethargically at best. Temperatures were a refreshing handful of degrees above freezing so the relative absence of wind was a small blessing. The barometer had actually peaked as we started the watch and fell throughout the day. Tomorrow is going to have precipitation in one form or the other, exactly when and how much will become clearer tomorrow morning. Raptor Observations: We got off to a slow start this morning with little traffic to count. We had one good hour when kettles of red-tails suddenly appeared later in the afternoon to make up for the shortcomings of the early hours. Red-tails outnumbered the other species with 66 of them soaring high aloft for some time and then streaming off in no apparent hurry. Turkey vultures came by in small groups, totaling 20 at day’s end. Red-shoulders numbered 9. We observed something we have seen in previous years in which a herring gull took a few runs at a couple of red-shouldered hawks. This does not happen with any other species that we have seen and can be a useful ID tip. Northern harriers were seen twice. A single sharp-shinned hawk made the count, along with a single bald eagle. We also had our first rough-legged hawk of the season, a dark morph. Non-raptor Observations: Another flight of tundra swans went by today, joining thousands of migrating ducks heading south. Gulls were spread far and wide over the sky today, mostly very high and soaring like raptors, occasionally forming their own kettles. The Bonaparte’s stayed low and close to the water as usual. Canada geese continue to serenade us as they fly by in flocks of forty or so. Predictions: Tomorrow looks like another difficult day to predict. I suspect that raptor traffic will not be very heavy as the barometer will be plunging again and rain and snow are possible. Of course, the morning forecast often bears little resemblance to the one I am looking at in the evening so who knows? ENE winds should rise, after today’s feeble effort, to above ten mph at the start of the watch but then fall during the day. It should be another dull day with thick gray stratus clouds low in the sky blocking the sun’s beneficial rays. The temperature will reach forty degrees but will probably feel cooler than today due to the wind in our face, if we are not rained out, that is. ======================================================================== 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