Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 16, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 2456 7339 11465 Osprey 0 3 22 Bald Eagle 5 17 51 Northern Harrier 1 97 292 Sharp-shinned Hawk 417 1882 4795 Cooper's Hawk 3 7 19 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 4 9 Broad-winged Hawk 0 10 22232 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 23 64 125 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 1 American Kestrel 121 340 989 Merlin 0 18 41 Peregrine Falcon 1 20 46 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: 3028 9801 40088 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 7.5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Frank Kitakis 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: Although fall officially began on September 22nd this year, it finally arrived today. The rain had reluctantly moved on and, on paper, the barometer would rise, the skies would clear, and birds would fly. Only one of those things happened, but it was the one we cared the most about. The barometer did rise .07 during the day but it seemed to all appearances as it had fallen again. Skies made a feeble attempt at clearing in the early hours but soon filled in with altostratus clouds of varying tortured textures, and towards the end; strewn about in a scattered fashion were dark cells that looked threatening. Only occasional short-lived glimpses of blue were permitted. The winds were robust and gusty; reinforcing the notion that summer might finally be in the rear-view mirror, at least for today. The birds were unable to hold a steady course, with wild swings in direction and elevation, especially sharpies and kestrels that are at the mercy of the winds to begin with. The wind came from the WNW direction for the most part and stayed above ten mph, gusting up to seventeen mph. Temps began in the high forties and rose to fifty-seven but the real feel was lower due to the lack of sunshine and that pesky wind. Raptor Observations: The mostly western wind seemed to invite the birds to fly into it and then tack off it. We saw this a lot with the turkey vultures today as they made unusual moves deciding what their flight path would be. Fortunately, they came up in our direction although there were some split decisions made as kettles would divide and go on different paths. We still managed to count two thousand, four hundred and seventeen. The high winds were to the bald eagles liking as we counted five passing overhead. Each was examined closely for a golden mantle as the weather looked promising for that species. The falcons, with one notable exception, were on the move with one hundred and twenty-one kestrels fighting the wind; one peregrine was observed, with the merlin being the absent bird. One red-shouldered hawk was seen today along with twenty-three red-tailed hawks filling out the buteo contingent. The accipiters were active with four hundred and seventeen sharp-shins popping out from behind trees all over, only to be punished by the winds. Three Cooper’s hawks rounded out the group. All in all, it was a busy day with birds coming from all angles all day long helping us to break the 3K mark. Non-raptor Observations: A flight of Forster’s terns made a brief appearance in the slip this morning. The gulls kept their kettles mostly out of the way today. The cormorants were out on the lake but hardly noticeable due to our busy state of affairs. A pair of female lesser scaup flew by, breaking the monopoly usually held by the mallards. White-breasted nuthatches could be heard in the nearby trees. A small flight of blue jays was seen in the morning but not too many ventured out today. The blackbirds seemed to take the day off too. Ten brave monarchs were noted. Predictions: Tomorrow has promise with a rising barometer and clearing skies. The winds will be out of the west again and potentially milder and more stable than today to start but rising later in the day. Mostly blue skies should greet us as the clouds should clear in the early morning hours. Temps will top out just into the sixties and wind chill will be a factor if you come on down. Hopefully we didn’t use up all our luck today and the vultures will continue to put on a show as they serenely float by. ======================================================================== 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