Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 16, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 157 4047 59850 Osprey 1 1 25 Bald Eagle 1 10 77 Northern Harrier 3 18 371 Sharp-shinned Hawk 7 132 6536 Cooper's Hawk 7 10 49 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 32 142 460 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 21973 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 235 1623 3238 Rough-legged Hawk 1 2 3 Golden Eagle 3 42 57 American Kestrel 0 0 1068 Merlin 2 14 63 Peregrine Falcon 1 7 63 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: 450 6048 93834 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Erika Van Kirk, Patrick Mulawa, 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: A less than robust wind with alternating forms of cloud cover made for a cool but pleasant day. We did spin the wheel on clouds with the pointer landing at various times on high cirrus mare’s tails, forecasting rain, cirrocumulus, making a popcorn ceiling, and stratus, starting to fill in as the rain approaches. In between bands of clouds we had, at times, clear blue skies and good light to spot birds. The wind did fall in the first hour and eventually shift to the southern quarter as promised, the wind turbines stopped until the shift was accomplished and the air mass started them moving again. The wind politely stayed around the five-mph mark giving the raptors a chance to make their way past our site. The barometer peaked early in the watch but then started the decline that usually accompanies rain systems. Raptor Observations: An interesting day in the good sense of the word. We were kept busy, once the red-tails started their movement, until the final hour. They came is all shapes and colors and we totaled two hundred and thirty-five by the final hour. Turkey vultures tried to make a comeback with one hundred and fifty-seven souls floating by. We did see some accipiters today with seven each of sharp-shins and Cooper’s hawks. The largest accipiter continues to elude us. The falcons had two representatives today with a pair of merlins and one peregrine showing themselves. Three northern harriers flopped though. Thirty-two red-shoulders kept the red-tails company as they traveled. We finally saw our third rough-legged hawk today, a light morph. One bald eagle was noted and three goldens were seen today. Our surprise bird of the day was a late osprey; perhaps the same one seen at Hawk Cliff on the 15th. Non-raptor Observations: Two loons were seen flying overhead. Strings of ducks and cormorants can be seen migrating. Lots of ducks can be seen as mere specks out on the lake but they rarely venture far enough in for us to ID them. That is our “sun-field” so we have to bird by silhouette for the most part. Bonaparte’s were seen in the slip this morning. The other gulls respectfully stayed out of the way as we toiled to count the parade of birds that passed by. We thought we may have heard a tundra swan call this morning but could not confirm. Predictions: Tomorrow looks wetter with possible showers early and definite rain later in the day. The actual timing of all of this will determine our fate. The barometer will fall a couple of tenths before rebounding on Thursday. Winds will be much increased out of the south bringing warmer air and possibly bumping the temperature up to near sixty degrees. Strong south wind, falling barometer, and threats of rain; I don’t see much to like here. ======================================================================== 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