Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 09, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 34 914 65707 Osprey 0 0 16 Bald Eagle 0 3 68 Northern Harrier 0 7 382 Sharp-shinned Hawk 7 26 5863 Cooper's Hawk 3 9 76 Northern Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 11 84 417 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 67350 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 21 489 3498 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 2 7 24 American Kestrel 0 0 981 Merlin 0 6 74 Peregrine Falcon 0 2 62 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 78 1547 144519 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Andrew Sturgess Observers: Sarah deGuise Visitors: We are located by the boat launch in Lake Erie Metropark in a fenced off area at the Hawk Watch site. This does not mean that we do not welcome interaction with any and all visitors. We enjoy talking about what we do and sharing our knowledge with beginners and experts alike. Please feel free to come up and talk to us. We usually have our backs turned to the parking lot as we scan the skies in front of us. This should not be interpreted as a sign of reluctance to engage; this is how we do our job. We have friendly people that do not bite and the welcome mat is always out. Weather: November, where is thy sting? Safely sheltered from the wind, the sun warming us with no cloud cover to temper its energy; it was another pleasant day at the watch. The wind strength was falling during the day but coming from the dreaded south direction so expectations were low and expectations were met. The temperature reached fifty-nine-degrees. The only indication that something evil comes this way was the falling barometric pressure hinting that change is coming. The change will be northern winds on the back side of the low bringing much colder, more seasonally correct temperatures next week. Considering the winds had whitecaps running out on the lake, it was a little surprising to see birds flying to the north but well within sight, that is, until they didn’t. The flight, while never in great numbers, shut down in the final two hours. Raptor Observations: Turkey vultures led the way again with one group passing by together and the rest of the day they were missing in action. They numbered 34 in strength. Red-tailed hawks were moving in fits and starts in the morning hours, totaling 21 at day’s end. Red-shoulders were on the move with the tails, 11 of them being observed. Sharp-shins were spread out during the day keeping us from getting skunked in most hours, except for the last one, with 7 of them passing over. A pair of golden eagles were seen off to the north but no close looks today. Cooper’s hawks had a trio of birds today. Non-raptor Observations: It was a very quiet day today and it seemed that when the raptors stopped flying, most other birds did too. The Carolina wren was singing again. A red-bellied woodpecker has found a feeder on one of the Gibraltar islands and is busy ferrying food to his caches nearby. We saw some flights of cormorants today, although those were the first migrating flights seen for some time. Most of the crows we saw today were going back in the direction that they came from for some unknown reason. Predictions: Tomorrow will be very similar to today. Stronger southern winds will likely keep the number of birds lower than we would like. The barometer will continue to fall, foretelling the rain that will come on Friday. It will be sunny and warm again, but that will be a fond memory next week as the northern winds bring a little more bite to our world. ======================================================================== 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-2022