Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 14, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 305 4883 9001 Osprey 0 3 22 Bald Eagle 0 12 46 Northern Harrier 5 96 292 Sharp-shinned Hawk 211 1465 4379 Cooper's Hawk 1 4 15 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 3 8 Broad-winged Hawk 0 10 22232 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 41 102 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 1 American Kestrel 48 219 868 Merlin 3 18 41 Peregrine Falcon 1 19 45 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: 575 6773 37053 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Erika Van Kirk, 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: Another strange transitional day in which the day seemed to come full circle on itself as we started with a dull day, dark enough to keep the aircraft lights on the stacks on, and ended in nearly the same way. Between, of course, was the teasing glimpses of a lovely fall day with cumulus sheep grazing in the blue meadow. The possibility of rain seemed likely at each end of the day but never materialized. That should show up tonight and tomorrow if the prognosticators are right. What was a constant today was a version of Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils as we struggled all day to pierce the hazy, thermally distorted atmosphere to see the jewels hidden behind. Although the barometer dropped, the temperatures rose, and the skies varied in appearance, the view was always somewhat obscured and long-distance observation was difficult. Winds played a factor today with the changes in direction and strength changing the flight line as the day progressed. The final direction was strong from the south which moved the birds to the north into the haziest end of the sky. Raptor Observations: After a productive day yesterday with relatively clear skies, we had hopes that today would follow suite. The weather that greeted us soon dashed those hopes and we had to deal with fuzzy skies all day. The turkey vulture movement was especially difficult to observe as they flew on the edge of visibility in all directions. We managed to count three hundred and five, although that number would probably been higher with less opaque skies. It seems that when the big birds take the day off, the smaller birds compensate. Today was a good day for sharp-shins with two hundred and eleven making themselves known. Kestrels were rushing for the exits as well with forty-eight being tallied. We managed another falcon trifecta seeing one peregrine and three merlins. One Cooper’s hawk was noted, along with one red-tailed hawk. The buteos were probably lost in the mist, if they were moving at all. Five northern harriers made their presence known. Non-raptor Observations: The most noteworthy occurrence on the non-raptor side of things was the very large numbers of “blackbirds” that came by in the morning hours. Large flocks of starlings came by repeatedly, as well as smaller flocks of red-winged blackbirds. It was the largest movement we had seen this year and possibly ever. We don’t usually see the large groups of starlings at our site. Four crows also flew over, their time is coming soon as larger murders are on the way. Predictions: I just received a warning of severe weather on my phone so the transition is starting with a bang. Although tomorrow might be a rainout, it remains to be seen whether that will come to pass given the vagaries of weather prediction in this area. The best hope for good movement is for Saturday, or Sunday, on the backside of this weather system when the barometer rebounds and the winds turn more favorable. ======================================================================== 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