Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 19, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 10 60 60 Osprey 0 16 16 Bald Eagle 11 24 24 Northern Harrier 27 97 97 Sharp-shinned Hawk 255 906 906 Cooper's Hawk 1 5 5 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 4468 17028 17028 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 5 34 34 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 80 415 415 Merlin 3 6 6 Peregrine Falcon 0 11 11 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 4860 18603 18603 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7.5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Mark Hainen 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: Another interesting day in the Matrix. The winds were revolving around us fairly tightly in this high-pressure system but we were fortunate to have a local SE wind that stayed in the east enough to keep the birds racing by, riding it for all it was worth. The winds were fairly steady but increased late in the day going a little more south. Had they been south all day, I doubt that we would have had the numbers that we did. The sky was a clear blue dome for most of the day until a few small cotton balls showed up near the end of the watch. The barometer was high but did peak and start to drop towards day’s end, foretelling a gradual decline lasting through a rainy period until Thursday. Raptor Observations: The first hour looked to be another sharpie day as they resembled Chicago voters coming early and often. We had over one a minute for the hour and only five other birds. We ended up with two hundred and fifty-five. It was another good day for northern harriers with twenty-seven passing through with their unique gait. The sharp-shinned’s normal traveling companion during September, the American kestrel, turned up today with good numbers and we counted eighty of them. Bald eagles seemed to enjoy the wind helping them along and we noted eleven. Turkey vultures are starting to pass, although there are still some just enjoying flying on the winds. We booked ten. One Cooper’s hawk was counted although we saw our local bird on patrol a few times. Five red-tailed hawks cruised over up high in the blue sky. We wanted the falcon hat-trick today but fell a peregrine short, along with the kestrels we had three merlins causing havoc as they passed by. Last but most, we managed to locate four thousand, four hundred and sixty-eight broad-winged hawks. Sneaky and elusive as ever, they came on different flight lines that had one thing in common, blink and you missed them. We did not see any real huge kettles but an erratic flight of a few hundred an hour coming in smaller groups. Just about when you had relaxed someone would spot a few specks in the sky and the clickers would sing again. Birds were reported to the north of us by reputable sources and it’s hard to tell how many we missed today. Non-raptor Observations: It was a relatively quiet day on the non-raptor front. Although there were plenty of gulls and some swallows in the air, they did not seem to intrude too much on our count. Forster’s terns and Caspian terns were noted but they did not seem to be as busy today. Our first real flocks of blue jays were noted today, not in huge numbers and only early in the day, but at least the process has started. The monarchs seemed to be observing the Sabbath with low numbers today. Predictions: Tomorrow will see the barometer continue to gradually drop, although it is starting from a high point today and will not pass the thirty-inch barrier tomorrow. Cloud cover should become significant and possible PM thunderstorms are predicted. Winds will be SSE to start and should go more S as the day progresses, gradually increasing in strength to low double digits. The temperatures will rise, compliments of the southern wind, to the high seventies. Not a great forecast but perhaps permitting some visible movement early before the wind goes fully south and pushes the flight north. ======================================================================== 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