Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 04, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 22 435 4553 Osprey 0 1 20 Bald Eagle 1 1 35 Northern Harrier 6 56 252 Sharp-shinned Hawk 102 534 3448 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 11 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 5 Broad-winged Hawk 0 2 22224 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 2 63 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 1 American Kestrel 1 57 706 Merlin 0 0 23 Peregrine Falcon 1 4 30 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: 133 1092 31372 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 7.5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess 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: I would be hard pressed to adequately describe the difference between the claustrophobic, calm stillness, blanketed in dense, dull cloud and fog that greeted us this morning and the final breezy scene consisting of huge cumulus clouds; the burgeoning new growth a brilliant sunlit white, set against a deep blue backdrop that we left at the end of the day. The wind was almost nonexistent at the start, and after the usual erratic indecision of late, arrived at its final S direction and increased up to eight mph. We are still at the center of a whirling mass of air and quick direction changes and lulls are to be expected. The barometer began to rebound off its lows of the very early morning hours and plateaued at just under thirty inches for the afternoon hours. Temperatures reached seventy but with the wind off the water it was “cooler by the lake” as they say in Duluth. Raptor Observations: Given the foreboding conditions that greeted us this morning and persisted through the morning hours into early afternoon, our goals were modest. Our totals were very modest until the last two and a half hours when the flight picked up as the gloomy, gray ceiling cracked and allowed blue patches to show through. The increasing wind may have helped motivate the birds as well. Our final goal was to just break one hundred birds for the day. Thanks to the old reliable sharpies we managed to pull it off. They donated one hundred and two specimens for us to count. Turkey vultures made a brief appearance with one small kettle containing twenty-two birds. We counted one adult bald eagle today. Only one kestrel was noted, the other falcon being a single peregrine. Northern harriers found their way over in the afternoon, we totaled six on the day. Our local eagles were heard kvetching at each other frequently today. Non-raptor Observations: There were plenty of cormorants voraciously feeding out on the lake today in pursuit of unseen fish. Our local osprey continues to hunt without apparent results. I think this is a young bird learning its craft. Blue jays were on the move today with many thousands moving through. They were flying unusually high at times. Monarchs were on the move in modest numbers, totaling forty-seven. We are seeing increasing numbers of starlings and other blackbirds moving in migration formations. Predictions: Tomorrow has a couple of positive things going for it. The barometer will still be climbing and the winds will shift to the NE at about eight mph. I hope that is gentle enough to allow the birds to cross over us instead being pushed to the south. It appears there will be plenty of cloud cover to provide a backdrop to help us see our targets. We have seen this forecast recently where the winds did not perform as expected so caveat emptor. ======================================================================== 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