Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 02, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 0 0 0 Bald Eagle 0 0 0 Northern Harrier 1 7 7 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 0 0 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 0 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 5 13 13 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 6 19 19 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 2 5 5 Merlin 0 2 2 Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0 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: 14 46 46 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Andrew Sturgess Observers: Mark Hainen, 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 meet 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: Today was very similar to yesterday except that we looked at the beautiful blue sky though veils of delicate cirrus clouds hung high in the sky. The icy crystals gave us sundogs in the morning hours and are hinting that we have precipitation to come in the near future. The official description for the day was cloudy but it was hard to think of it in that way since the sun penetrated through the wispy clouds leaving distinct shadows and welcome shade under the maple trees. Winds remained from a mostly southern direction but shifted to the east just a little to give a cooling breeze off the lake. This helped to moderate the effects of the 80-degree temperature. Winds were about 8 mph and possibly pushed some of the raptor traffic to the north as most of the birds we saw passed on that side. The barometer was fairly steady at 30.1 inches most of the day with little movement except in the hundredth’s column. Tomorrow’s changes, which include a slight wind shift to the west bringing in higher temperatures may make us remember today even more fondly. Raptor Observations: Today’s numbers were less than half of yesterday’s total with 14 birds all told. Red-tailed hawks, all juveniles, led the way again with six birds. Broadwings continue to fly, but they were wide-spaced with five counted over five hours. Only one Northern Harrier showed up today. A pair of American kestrels flying together showed up in the last hour. Non-raptor Observations: We had some new non-raptors make an appearance today with a kingfisher, one of my photographic nemesis birds, passing through close to the water. A Black-crowned night-heron did a fly-by in the morning hours. A great egret moved from its usual station in the marsh to give us a brief glimpse before retreating. Five lesser yellowlegs flew over in the morning. We did spot a killdeer passing over as well. The cedar waxwings were there again but seemed to have lost some of the congregation. We received a report of very good warbler activity on the museum trail this morning with a wide mix of species. Predictions: Tomorrow’s weather doesn’t look much different on paper than todays but the shift to the SW rather than SE will bring hotter air and eliminate the cooling breeze off the lake. There is a small chance of rain which will increase on the following days to a much higher percentage. Winds will peak at about the same strength as today. The barometer will remain in the same ballpark, north of 30 inches. The real feel temperatures are predicted to be close to 90 degrees. These conditions may not affect the raptor flight, slow as it may be, but the hawk counters may suffer a little more. Even though the rest of the Labor Day weekend shows good chances of rain, the wind pattern is interesting with a mostly NE direction and that is usually a productive wind for us. We will just have to see how it plays out and whether the scattered thunderstorms scatter the counters more than the birds. ======================================================================== 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