Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 10, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 6 920 65713 Osprey 0 0 16 Bald Eagle 0 3 68 Northern Harrier 1 8 383 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 27 5864 Cooper's Hawk 0 9 76 Northern Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 84 417 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 67350 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 490 3499 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 7 24 American Kestrel 0 0 981 Merlin 0 6 74 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: 9 1556 144528 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord, Patrick Mulawa 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 pleasant day at the watch, another day of exchanging sea stories instead of counting raptors. The wind stayed in the south and blew with strengths always exceeding 8 mph. The barometer dropped a tenth of an inch with more to come tomorrow. The temperatures hit the mid-sixties and with very little cloud cover it seemed more like September than November. November is not pleased and anxious to remind us that winter is coming. It will do so next week. Raptor Observations: Let’s just call it an underwhelming day and leave it at that. Six turkey vultures accidentally revealed themselves for a brief moment and dramatically increased our total for the day percentagewise. The rest stayed hidden. A single northern harrier crossed the lake to the south of us. One sharp-shinned hawk was wondering why he was the only bird to be seen in the whole sky. A single red-tailed hawk drifted over early in the morning. Whether it was the winds or the falling barometer the birds were nowhere to be seen today. Non-raptor Observations: Another quiet day on the non-raptor front too. Bonaparte’s gulls were fluttering a foot off the water flying into the wind and then circling back to repeat the process. More migrating cormorant lines were seen today although relatively few. The local bald eagles put on a show for some of our visitors for which we were grateful since the migrants had abandoned us. The airborne seeds continue to cover the earth around us and the inside of your car if you leave the hatch open for a minute or two. I had the thought today that they may be cattail seeds rather than phragmites. I shall investigate further. Predictions: Tomorrow will be another day of transition and they are hard to predict with accuracy. Rain seems to be in the forecast but the radar, at present, shows a rather thin line so it may or not materialize. The winds will shift from south to the northwest as the high pressure starts to move in after the low passes. The temperature should hit the fifties but when the winds turn north, they will drop significantly. The next week will be much, not cooler, but colder than any weather we have had so far in this fall. Winter is coming and this will be a wake-up call. It doesn’t look to be a good day for birds and the northwest winds following in the next couple of days may be a little too strong for our site. It’s time to break out the Arctic gear. ======================================================================== 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