Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 25, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 1 1009 65674 Osprey 0 0 16 Bald Eagle 1 13 79 Northern Harrier 1 16 391 Sharp-shinned Hawk 4 43 5880 Cooper's Hawk 1 19 86 Northern Goshawk 0 1 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 4 135 468 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 67350 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 53 1252 4261 Rough-legged Hawk 2 4 4 Golden Eagle 4 22 39 American Kestrel 0 0 981 Merlin 0 9 77 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: 71 2525 145370 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 6.5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord, Don Sherwood, Frank Kitakis, Michelle Peregord, Rosemary Brady, 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: We continued to give thanks today for a NW wind that delivered some tasty goodies. Although its relentless power in the ten to fifteen mph range was causing some “one step forward and two steps back” flight paths at times, most of the birds fought their way into it giving us sufficient ID opportunities. The clear blue skies, after a brief early morning passage of dark-bottomed, tightly clustered cumulus clouds, permitted good looks and the atmosphere was mostly absent of the heat shimmy that sometimes makes things more difficult. The barometer was fairly stable with small variations in the hundredth’s column. Temperatures peaked at just over the fifty-degree mark making for a comfortable day, if appropriately attired. Raptor Observations: Usually, winds of this strength and from this direction tend to push birds out over the lake and indeed, all the birds we saw were affected by the wind. We had numerous birds that were headed directly for our site, giving hope to the photographers, only to see them pushed to the south, crossing at a completely different location than first indicated. Red-tailed hawks led the way with 53 of their number tallied. The next highest count was 4, which was shared by three different species, Sharp-shinned hawks, red-shouldered hawks and last, but certainly not least, golden eagles. Even these powerful eagles were having trouble making headway in the opposing wind. We had a pair of rough-legged hawks, one light and one dark morph, traveling together. Four other species came with a single bird apiece, northern harriers, bald eagles, turkey vultures and Cooper’s hawks. Non-raptor Observations: It’s been a while since I mentioned pelicans but they were back again about fifty strong. Four sandhill cranes flew by, working hard into an opposing wind. The Bonaparte’s gulls are still present in what seems to be increasing numbers, approaching a figure on the north side of one hundred. The lone little gull continues to mingle with the Boney’s, although not as frequently active as some visitors might like. Many migrating strings of ducks were seen in the eastern sky. In our cove, occasional sightings of bufflehead females and pairs of hooded mergansers occurred. Predictions: Tomorrow will resemble today, but the winds will have shifted to the SW and blow in the nine to twelve mph range. Skies will be mostly clear during the watch hours, or at least that is the prediction, with clouds gathering later in the day and delivering rain on Sunday. The barometer will start to tail off tomorrow but most of the drop will occur after the watch and early Sunday morning with a predicted 29.3” bottom. Usually, this kind of low would indicate strong winds but this doesn’t seem to be the case this time. Hopefully, we can simply turn our gaze from the south today to the north tomorrow and still see birds taking the opportunity to escape before the rain arrives. ======================================================================== 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