Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 07, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 120 3486 59289 Osprey 0 0 24 Bald Eagle 0 8 75 Northern Harrier 2 8 361 Sharp-shinned Hawk 10 94 6478 Cooper's Hawk 0 2 41 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 10 80 398 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 21973 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 81 1069 2684 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 1 Golden Eagle 2 25 40 American Kestrel 0 0 1068 Merlin 1 8 57 Peregrine Falcon 0 2 58 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: 226 4782 92548 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood 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: O November, where is thy sting? An easy question to ask on a day where the temperatures just touched sixty degrees and bountiful sunshine made for a more spring-like day than the last half of fall. Winds from the southern quarter were kept in check a little but still managed to usher the flight line to the north where thermal haze played havoc with our vision. The barometer dropped from its highs but not in significant numbers, remaining above thirty inches. Clouds were high, thin and wispy as befits a high-pressure system. A very pleasant day that brought out the boaters and nature lovers but left us a little frustrated with the results that we had to work hard for. Raptor Observations: Once again, we faced a slow start to the watch, although there were some mild winds present at the start of the watch. It seems that we have a regular pattern recently of a flurry of activity in the middle of the day, which has changed by one hour today, and then it falls off a cliff late in the afternoon. Turkey vultures led the way again but their daily total amounts are about what we saw in one kettle during October. We saw one hundred and twenty today. The red-tails were on the move with eighty-one tallied. It still feels that we are right on the edge of their movement and that better results would be available with a different vantage point. Ten of their buteo cousins, the red-shouldered hawk, were seen today. Nine sharp-shins flew by in their unique manner. Two northern harriers made the journey today. We have not seen many of that species lately. One merlin was seen in the treetops seeking a meal before traveling. We also were privileged to see two golden eagles today. Non-raptor Observations: A relatively slow day today. We did see a few crows early in the day but nothing compared to most recent days. Our single common tern was present again. Today was the day for the insects to reemerge from wherever it is they go to await warmer weather. Parachute spiders, lady bugs, dancing midges (for lack of a better description) and a lone monarch butterfly came out today. The gulls were up in the sky hawking the latest hatch. Our snake was out soaking up the sun in the morning hours. It seems that once the temperatures warm above a certain level the whole insect world comes alive again. Predictions: Tomorrow looks to be similar to today in that it will be sunny, fairly warm, and the barometer will be high. The winds, however, are predicted to be over ten mph and that may be too strong for our purposes. This will be our fourth day of southerly winds but change is coming on Tuesday when the winds will shift to E and N which may bring larger numbers of migrants closer to us. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Kevin Georg (kevin.l.georg@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