Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 28, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 5350 50984 55103 Osprey 0 5 24 Bald Eagle 1 35 67 Northern Harrier 4 161 353 Sharp-shinned Hawk 20 3445 6356 Cooper's Hawk 3 29 39 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 136 307 312 Broad-winged Hawk 0 18 21973 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 576 1430 1491 Rough-legged Hawk 1 1 1 Golden Eagle 5 14 15 American Kestrel 2 422 1068 Merlin 0 25 48 Peregrine Falcon 0 27 53 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: 6098 56903 86904 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Maddie Holden, Mark Hainen, Rosemary Brady, 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: I always say that you have to pay your dues in hawk-watching to receive the benefits. Yesterday was a dues paying day, today was benefits day. The wind was moderate to begin with but it began to increase, on an opposite trajectory to the barometric pressure which fell to possibly our lowest reading of the season at 29.63 inches. Winds were very favorable at first, out of the ENE, but then went E and grew to comfortably over ten mph, relentlessly tightening the skin on our faces as the day progressed. Since tomorrow looks to be a rain-out, the birds were making the best of the window of opportunity to exit before it arrived. The sky started off similar to the last prelude to rain that we had with a solar halo complete with a sun dog accent making for an attractive morning sky. The clouds took their time filling in with early wispy mares’ tails splashed on a bright blue background. Contrails from the planes high overhead spread widely to create their own form of marker for us to use in locating birds. The late afternoon hours were filled with darker stratus clouds that looked as if the rain might arrive ahead of its appointed hour. Raptor Observations: It was Birdapalooza for the first few crazy hours as the birds came in big numbers but in many different flight lines. It might have been better if we each had three eyes to use. As the wind went more easterly and grew in strength, some of the action ended up over the lake at a distance which made it more difficult to record. The turkey vultures led the way of course, with five thousand, three hundred and fifty specimens noted. The TVs usually drag along the buteos with them and today was no exception with five hundred and seventy-six red-tailed hawks and one hundred and thirty-six red-shouldered hawks making the count. One bald eagle was counted and five golden eagles flew by on their own individual courses. The sharp-shins may have been affected by the strength of the wind as they are normally buffeted even in moderate winds; we notched twenty birds today. Only three of their bigger brothers, the Cooper’s hawk, were counted. Another bird that suffers from exposure to high winds, the American kestrel, was noticeably absent today with only two counted; no other falcons were seen. Four northern harriers took advantage of the tail wind to head south. Our first rough-legged hawk of the season made a brief appearance racing by on the winds as most birds were. They moved so rapidly that it was difficult to relocate them if you took your eyes off for a moment. Non-raptor Observations: The crows were on the move today with many thousands observed. They took a distant line over the lake at times making an exact count difficult. It was difficult to pay much attention to other species today as we were occupied most of the day with raptors. A flock of Forster’s terns, consisting of about twenty plus birds made a brief appearance. The high winds kept most of the avian flak down out of sight so our vision was not obscured today. Predictions: Tomorrow, hmmm, let’s see…er, rain. Raindrops will be as numerous as the birds were today. Saturday will be iffy early as showers may continue in the morning hours. The barometer will start to rebound but the day should be cloudy all day. Winds will continue to be fairly strong on Saturday and from a good direction but it remains to be seen if the birds will move that close to the passing storm. Sunday looks more promising. ======================================================================== 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