Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 30, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 1694 4118 4118 Osprey 0 19 19 Bald Eagle 4 34 34 Northern Harrier 37 196 196 Sharp-shinned Hawk 378 2914 2914 Cooper's Hawk 5 11 11 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 5 5 5 Broad-winged Hawk 430 22222 22222 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 9 61 61 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 1 1 1 American Kestrel 41 649 649 Merlin 2 23 23 Peregrine Falcon 3 26 26 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: 2609 30280 30280 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, Erika Van Kirk, Frank Kitakis, 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 chamber of commerce day with moderate temperatures, moderate winds and moderate cloud cover assisting us to locate a more than moderate total of birds. Winds were very similar to yesterday in that they suddenly reversed direction completely before we started work and went SW from NE, then S and growing in strength. I’m starting to doubt the predictions. The barometer stayed above thirty inches all day with little movement. Light cirrus clouds served to dim the brightness of the blue sky and ease our eye strain. All in all, a very pleasant day to perform our daily task. Raptor Observations: When working in the mines you occasionally find some precious gems among the normal product. Today was such a day with the first arrivals of this season for two species. Our first young golden eagle came this morning and our first red-shoulders were noted. For those that are wondering, this is the fourth September golden eagle in the history of the watch. We ordinarily start to think about them later in October when the temperatures drop. This is not the earliest arrival in September as one was recorded on the twenty first in 2002, and other single birds came on the twenty seventh in 2006 and 2015. We also counted four bald eagles today. September red-shoulders are relatively rare in most years, today we had five. Broad-wings are tapering off, and although compared to other species their numbers are good, four hundred and thirty is a sign that their race is almost run. Red-tailed hawks are increasing in number but they have just started their race, much better days will come, today we notched nine. We had another good day with the sharp-shins coming in droves again. Three hundred and seventy-eight fluttered by our post. We also counted five Cooper’s hawks. Another falcon hat trick was scored today with three peregrines, two merlins and forty-one kestrels speeding by. The turkey vultures were a little harder to see today as the wind from the south increased and they rode off to the north on that wind. We still managed sixteen hundred and ninety-four as their kettles are increasing in size each day. Non-raptor Observations: Another fairly slow day for blue jays and monarchs. The Forster’s terns finally came out and dove in front of us, terrorizing the minnow population. Normally, they have just been roosting on the entrance buoys to the boat channel. Gulls are still present in large numbers and still creating gull kettles in front of the turkey vulture kettles just to make things more interesting. A pair of killdeers flew over but we still have them locally in the park. Our osprey is still here and looking for bigger fish than minnows. Caspian terns are still present in very low numbers. Predictions: Tomorrow’s winds are predicted to start in the S, much like they ended the last two days. They will rise quickly to eight mph during the day. Although that does not seem like much, it may make our work a little more difficult with the birds going north into a hazy sky. The barometer will peak in the morning and then start a decline over two days as a rain-bearing system is on the way. Clouds should increase on Saturday with rain likely in the late evening hours carrying over to Sunday, which looks like another possible rainout. I would expect sharpies, falcons and harriers to be present tomorrow but the buteos may be blown to the north. Hopefully, that will not be the case as we seem to be on a roll, having counted very close to eight thousand birds in the last three days. ======================================================================== 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