Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 23, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 3578 35460 39586 Osprey 0 5 24 Bald Eagle 0 31 65 Northern Harrier 15 148 343 Sharp-shinned Hawk 60 3261 6174 Cooper's Hawk 0 23 35 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 3 62 67 Broad-winged Hawk 0 18 22240 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 39 554 615 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 4 5 American Kestrel 4 417 1066 Merlin 0 25 48 Peregrine Falcon 0 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: 3699 40031 70318 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 23:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, 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: Yes, we did eventually end up with partly cloudy skies, but to get there we witnessed a garish display of nature’s capricious ways of arriving at a destination. Once again, we were on an isobar line which erratically affected the wind direction and strength. A low-pressure trough is headed our way tomorrow but for most of today it looked as if it had already arrived. Ominous purple clouds offered a contrast to the otherwise gray mat that covered the sky at times until the gradual clearing later in the final hours. The temperatures were more pleasant than yesterday’s rude awakening, even though they only reached just above fifty degrees. The barometer was steady for the morning hours but started to fall in the afternoon, ending just under thirty inches. Winds were rising till midday but eased later, the direction changed from WSW to NW to WNW causing some changes in the wind-sensitive turkey vultures flight lines as they reacted to the shifts. Raptor Observations: Much like yesterday, we got off to a very slow start with less than thirty birds for the first three hours. The turkey vultures started in modest numbers after that, but really got going in a two-hour span from two till four p.m. We ended with a respectable total of three thousand, five hundred and seventy-eight, given that slow start. No one told the sharpies when to run, so they missed the starting gun, but we ended the day with sixty counted, some coming in the turkey vulture streams at the end of the day. We had a fairly good harrier day with fifteen counted, the first of the day was a gray ghost. We haven’t seen that many of these birds lately but they are always a welcome sight with their unique gait. Buteos can be expected to hitchhike with the vultures and today we noted thirty-nine red-tailed hawks and three red-shouldered hawks. Four American kestrels were the only falcon representatives. Today was apparently St. Valentine’s Day for the local red-tails as they were observed flying together in display flights showing public displays of affection. One bird was carrying a large stick as the other flew with its legs extended. This legs-down posture was a frequent gesture of amore, although I’m not sure why. Non-raptor Observations: The birds of the day were the swallows that moved into our neighborhood in significant numbers. They caused some confusion at times as they constantly crossed our field of view and had to be checked to see if they were sharpies or kestrels. At times, they do a credible job of imitating both species. We have not had serious vision issues with them this year, but apparently the insect hatch was close to us today and, no, the swallows have not left. Crows are becoming more apparent and at times in the shimmering haze of thermal distortion they are easily confused with the other black flocking bird of October, the turkey vulture. The one thing that all hawk watchers are thankful for is that crows do not glide, they flap all the time. Ravens glide, but not crows. This simplifies our life a great deal as we try to separate raptors from non-raptors. We always look for the flap and glide pattern of raptors to separate them from other species. Predictions: The first few hours of tomorrow’s watch would ordinarily show promise. Winds look favorable, barometric pressure is above 30 inches, what’s not to like? Well, the fact that we have had very slow starts the last two days, the fact that rain is imminent in the afternoon hours and that the winds will eventually grow too strong for our site. Perhaps we will see a mad rush for the exits before the rain but that remains to be seen. Heavy rains will through a dampener on most migration activity for the next two days. ======================================================================== 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