Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 21, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 134 38149 45433 Osprey 0 2 16 Bald Eagle 0 17 48 Northern Harrier 6 96 328 Sharp-shinned Hawk 314 1740 4616 Cooper's Hawk 1 34 58 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 48 51 Broad-winged Hawk 0 28 67350 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 8 483 664 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 8 8 American Kestrel 35 201 956 Merlin 7 25 50 Peregrine Falcon 4 28 50 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: 509 40859 119628 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7.5 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Jerry Jourdan, Mark Hainen, 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: After enduring three bleak days of cold winds with little light, we had a different kind of struggle on our hands today as the flight slowed down in the last hours. The somnambulistic effects of a warn sun beating down from a clear sky in our sheltered location were almost too much to resist. The wind was indeed blowing as evidenced by the whitecaps on the lake, but we rarely felt much of it. In some ways it was an ill wind in that it blew most of the turkey vultures and buteos to parts unseen, but may have actually increased our counts of other species. Starting in the SSW for the first couple of hours, it moved to S, lodging there for the rest of the day. It peaked at fifteen mph around noon and subsided a little after that. The barometer dropped but not by any significant amount, still hanging in the 29.8 range. Temperatures reached the sixty-six-degree mark, a pleasant change from the snowy weather that we saw yesterday. Raptor Observations: A day of change at the top, the sharpies staged a coup, and took the honors today with 314 birds flying by. Despite being pushed sideways by the wind, it was less gusty and they had a smoother ride today. The turkey vultures were probably pushed to a more northern route and with the haze off the lake being pushed by the wind to the north, it was a hard task to spot any of them. We ended with 134 on the day, a tenth of what we might have expected given recent counts. American kestrels were on the podium with 35 birds tallied. Falcons had a good day with 7 merlins counted along with 4 peregrine falcons. One merlin was determined to take out a red-bellied woodpecker that flew too close to his personal space, giving the crowd some interesting entertainment and increasing the woodpecker’s heart rate considerably. Red-tails were probably too far to the north today with the vultures, with one notable exception among the 8 we counted. We had an intermediate dark morph red-tail today. Not a common variation that we see at the site. Northern harriers numbered 6 today. A single Cooper’s hawk was noted. Non-raptor Observations: The swallows and pelicans seemed diminished in number and enthusiasm today. Both made early appearances but vanished for the most part in the later hours. It seemed a fairly quiet day in the skies with few gulls taking to the heights. Forster’s terns and Bonaparte’s gulls were seen later in the day in small numbers. Crows were present in larger numbers with over 350 counted. We diligently search each and every one for the “rare but regular” (Sibley) white wing patches that can occur in these corvids. I think we have seen one over the years in the tens of thousands that have passed by. There were some small blackbird and starling flights early in the day. Predictions: The wind stays in the south tomorrow and stays healthy, remaining in double digits all day. The temperature will remain more comfortable than we would normally expect this time of year, reaching the mid-sixties again. The barometer should climb tomorrow and finally break the thirty-inch barrier. The flight may be affected the same way tomorrow as today, although the slightly lower peak speed of the wind may let us glimpse more TV’s and buteos. Sharpies may be reluctant to cede their position once they have experienced life at the top so we will see if they have reserves waiting in the wings. ======================================================================== 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