Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 20, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 2429 28853 32979 Osprey 0 5 24 Bald Eagle 2 30 64 Northern Harrier 6 129 324 Sharp-shinned Hawk 244 3108 6021 Cooper's Hawk 2 17 29 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 10 55 60 Broad-winged Hawk 0 15 22237 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 86 421 482 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 1 3 4 American Kestrel 9 409 1058 Merlin 1 25 48 Peregrine Falcon 0 23 49 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: 2790 33093 63380 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Mark Hainen, 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: All good things must come to an end and those ends usually coincide with a southerly wind at our site. Today was a lead-in to a rainy period, although there was little to indicate any impending precipitation from the appearance of the sky. A few isolated clouds of little substance made an appearance over us, but in the distance large stalagmite-like cumulus clouds could be seen out over the lake. The winds told the tale today. It was a gentle push at first but grew steadily throughout the day, always with a large southerly component easing the birds to the north until the skies were scrubbed and we were left to engage in a sometimes-heated discussion of the sound of one hand clapping, with fervent views being expressed on all sides. The barometer was fairly stable most of the day until the final hours when it began its predicted drop as the rain system approaches. Raptor Observations: I suppose that a few weeks ago a total of two thousand, seven hundred and ninety birds would have been very well received, but that was then, this is now, after seeing much higher totals in recent days. Today’s birds were hard-earned as most were well to the north in a thermal haze that got worse as the day progressed. We managed to find two thousand, four hundred and twenty-nine turkey vultures despite the interference. These birds virtually disappeared in the final hour. The turkey vultures travel in large streams that often carry along other species with them. Today, most of our red-tails were seen in that stream, we counted eighty-six and along with them were ten red-shouldered hawks. The diamond in the rough from that stream was the lone golden eagle of the day, a subadult that gave a final pose to allow positive ID. The falcons were subdued today with nine kestrels and one merlin making an appearance. The sharpies are usually the most reliable of birds and today they started coming from the south of us and finished well to the north. We tabulated two hundred and forty-four of them, along with two Cooper’s hawks. Non-raptor Observations: Blue jays continued to move, but in lesser numbers, and they are sharing the airspace with the early moving crows now. Blackbirds were not so evident this morning. We did see a Caspian tern pass by today but it did not linger long. We didn’t see the large numbers of cormorants today so perhaps they have moved on. We have been seeing long strings of them migrating the past week. The last hour of the day was almost strange for the absence of birds in the sky, even the usual suspects of gulls and swallows were not seen. Predictions: Tomorrow does not look promising. Although the rain may pass early in the day, the winds are from the SW and progressively growing up to fifteen mph in strength. This usually pushes the birds out of our sight even though they may be on the move after the rain passes in the morning. Cloud cover should be fairly high tomorrow and the barometer should bottom out three tenths lower than today and start to rise in the afternoon. We will be on the lookout for sharpies and falcons but the larger birds may be out of sight tomorrow. ======================================================================== 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