Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 22, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 6191 75563 77684 Osprey 0 2 53 Bald Eagle 0 19 91 Northern Harrier 7 97 452 Sharp-shinned Hawk 91 2430 6127 Cooper's Hawk 2 37 48 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 37 157 157 Broad-winged Hawk 6 107 107388 Swainson's Hawk 1 1 1 Red-tailed Hawk 116 527 613 Rough-legged Hawk 3 6 6 Golden Eagle 2 3 3 American Kestrel 2 281 1251 Merlin 2 9 39 Peregrine Falcon 0 19 39 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 6460 79258 193954 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord, Don Sherwood, Jackie Quinones, Mark Hainen, Michelle Peregord Visitors: We welcome visitors to our site and are very willing to share migration information, photography and ID tips with them. We have cards and pamphlets, so come and talk to us. However, during times of high traffic, requiring extra focus and concentration, we would respectfully ask that everyone use their indoor voices and allow us to fulfill our mission to the best of our abilities. Thank you. Weather: We had blue bookends to the day with nearly clear skies at the beginning and end of the watch. In between, we had a “what fresh hell is this?” period in the morning hours when heavy stratus cloud cover swept in on the NW wind blocking the sun and cooling down the site for a couple of hours. Gradually, the clouds lightened up into white cumulus bunnies’ tails that scampered off to the southeast leaving us basking in the sun once more. Winds were up and down in speed, with direction changes that caused the birds to take many scattered flight lines, all at once, in some cases. Temperatures barely broke the fifty-degree mark and with a northerly wind and no sun, it felt like a harbinger of a winter to come. The barometer zoomed up over three tenths of an inch mercury as high pressure rushed in. Raptor Observations: Today was a good day. The turkey vultures flew all day long in manageable numbers. Our final count for the day was 6,191. Red-tailed hawks displaced the usual runner-up sharpies with 116 gliding by. The tenacious sharpies still managed a podium step with ninety-one of their species fluttering through. Another buteo, the red-shouldered hawk, came next with thirty-seven showing themselves. Harriers have slowed, well off their September pace, but seven were counted today. We are still seeing broadwings tagging along with the other species, six of them were noted. We had two merlins and two kestrels for the falcon contingent today. Two Cooper’s hawks were also tallied. We were a little concerned with our lack of rough-legged hawks the last two years but we are off to a good start this year with three more light morphs counted today. We had two golden eagles today, one of them flew over the site in the final hour instead of their usual helicoptering up, up, and away over Gibraltar. The final hour was a special one with one of the goldens, one of the rough-leggeds and our first Swainson’s hawk since 2018. It was in a stream of turkey vultures and conveniently pulled up for us to see its massive wings. We think it was an intermediate morph bird. Non-raptor Observations: Today was a good day for other species too. We had a visit from the white pelicans, wheeling in formations across the slip from us. There were probably around 45 birds. We also saw a small group of five sandhill cranes flying together. We had about 1,500 crows today, mostly in the morning hours. Blue jays totaled just over one thousand. One monarch was seen. We also had a flyover by, what I believe to be, a trumpeter swan. We haven’t seen any tundra swans yet. Predictions: The winds are going to die down almost completely overnight, turning SW in the morning hours. They will grow in strength but only just over five mph if the forecast is accurate. The barometer will still be headed up till midday and then a slight decline may happen. We will have a mostly cloudy day. Temperatures will be in the same range as today so it may feel cool without the sun, although the winds should be mild and mostly blocked so that may increase the comfort level. It is not our favorite wind but if it stays low at the predicted speed, we may be able to see the birds off to the north. ======================================================================== 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-2023