Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 19, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 7980 26424 30550 Osprey 2 5 24 Bald Eagle 4 28 62 Northern Harrier 18 123 318 Sharp-shinned Hawk 373 2864 5777 Cooper's Hawk 1 15 27 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 45 50 Broad-winged Hawk 0 15 22237 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 68 335 396 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 2 2 3 American Kestrel 23 400 1049 Merlin 2 24 47 Peregrine Falcon 2 23 49 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: 8476 30303 60590 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Erika Van Kirk, Mark Hainen, Patrick Mulawa, 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: It’s a little unusual to have the same winds for three consecutive days but for the last couple of years we have massive high-pressure systems that occupy the entire eastern half of the country. Things don’t always turn out as predicted, but the last three days have been productive for us on winds that had a western component. Today’s winds were a little more to the south so we had to work harder to see the river of turkey vultures that were leaving Canada for warmer climes. Once again, we were close to an isobar line and our winds were variable, only slightly in direction, but up and down in strength. We had a Sistine Chapel of a sky dome to work with. Attractive mare’s tails provided just enough contrast to help us find birds and cut the glare from the bright sun, an almost perfect viewing experience. The temperatures rose to seventy plus making it a comfortable watch today. The barometer was steady to begin but the frosty mare’s tails clouds were telling us that rain was coming and the pressure was falling a little at day’s end. Raptor Observations: October is the month for turkey vultures to head south and today they continued the trend of the last few days. It seemed that there was an endless stream once the winds got up enough to provide lift for them. We counted seven thousand, nine hundred and eighty today. The winds pushed them a little to the north but they were still visible at certain gaps in the tree line. The red-tailed hawks were moving in concert with the vultures and sixty-eight were counted. One red-shouldered hawk was noted. We counted four bald eagles and two ospreys today. The sharp-shinned hawks were also on the move with three hundred and seventy-three fluttering by. Only one Cooper’s hawk was tallied. Eighteen northern harriers wafted by in their own unique fashion. We had a trifecta again in the falcon department with two merlins, two peregrines and twenty-three American kestrels. Last but not least, we had two golden eagles today. The final bird was the last of the day, we spotted it about three zip codes away and waited about thirty minutes for its arrival and confirmation. During all that time, it flapped two “pseudo flaps” and nothing else; a truly magnificent display of flying ability. Non-raptor Observations: We noted the presence of Forster’s terns early in the morning. Blue jays are still on the move but not in large numbers. Red-winged blackbirds are more common flying by in their bounding flight pattern. A massive murmuration of starlings was seen over Ontario again. It’s mesmerizing to watch as an avian lava lamp morphs before your disbelieving eyes. It sounds similar to fireworks show as people respond to the coordinated movements of the huge flocks. Predictions: Tomorrow’s watch hours will be mostly sunny but towards the evening there is a forty percent chance of rain. The winds should be mostly from our least favorite direction, SW. It will be moderate to start but grow to about ten mph. The barometer will start a sharp decline about the time the watch commences and will bottom out on Thursday as the rain get serious. Hard to say what we may see tomorrow in the vulture department as the winds may push them north to far to see. They seem determined to move though, so fingers crossed. Sharpies will probably fly right up to the bad weather but the falling barometer may discourage movement of some of the birds. ======================================================================== 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