Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 13, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 5 3889 59692 Osprey 0 0 24 Bald Eagle 0 9 76 Northern Harrier 1 14 367 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 123 6527 Cooper's Hawk 0 3 42 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 106 424 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 21973 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 1346 2961 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 2 Golden Eagle 0 38 53 American Kestrel 0 0 1068 Merlin 0 12 61 Peregrine Falcon 0 4 60 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: 7 5545 93331 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 12:00:00 Total observation time: 3 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, 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: The sturm und drang was too much for the raptors today as they thought better of traveling through a turbulent sky filled with high winds and precipitation. Gusty western winds were topping out at fifteen mph shoving the gray clouds overhead past our site at breakneck speed. They carried precipitation that caused a brief hiatus in the watch and finally we threw in the towel in the mid-afternoon lest we found ourselves in the classic definition of insanity where you keep repeating the same thing and expect a different result. Temperatures reached forty degrees but thankfully we were sheltered from the worst of the wind. The barometer was fairly steady but remained below thirty inches. The lake level had dropped over three feet in front of us since yesterday, the local marshes, which are connected to the lake, were mud flats, and somewhere near Buffalo, basements must be flooding. Raptor Observations: Today’s weather made a good result unlikely and so it was. We managed only seven birds. Five of those birds were turkey vultures that slowly made the tortuous trek across the slip into the teeth of the wind. We noted one northern harrier and one red-tailed hawk. The local birds seemed to enjoy the high winds with a pair of red-tails, which are apparently pair-bonding, playing tag and kiting over Celeron Island. Two of our local bald eagles were covering a lot of territory today on the strength of the winds. Non-raptor Observations: There was little to observe besides falling leaves today. No migrating crows came by our site. The gulls were up practicing high wind maneuvers but little else. We have been seeing large flocks of possibly scaup out on the lake the last couple of days, probably numbering in the thousands. Predictions: Tomorrow seems to hold less promise than today with greater threats of precipitation, continuing ten mph winds from the south, and the dreaded “S” word is mentioned in the forecast. Any of that “S” that falls should be washed away by the rain to follow. The temperatures will stay in the thirties tomorrow so we are finally getting a taste of the winter to come. The barometer will take another slide down but just for the day. There will be a rebound on Monday and possibly a better chance of movement, although the winds then may still be strong enough to negatively affect the flight line. ======================================================================== 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