Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 30, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 3325 89104 Osprey 0 0 49 Bald Eagle 0 46 146 Northern Harrier 0 29 464 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 178 6626 Cooper's Hawk 0 23 77 American Goshawk 0 3 4 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 217 442 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 86710 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Red-tailed Hawk 0 2000 3302 Rough-legged Hawk 0 6 19 Golden Eagle 0 97 108 American Kestrel 0 7 1190 Merlin 0 11 58 Peregrine Falcon 0 13 59 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 3 Unknown Falcon 0 0 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 0 5956 188363 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 5 hours Official Counter: Andrew Sturgess Observers: Bill Peregord, Don Sherwood, Jackie Quinones, Sam Heilman Visitors: Wait till next year.... Weather: The unrelenting wind from the SW essentially scoured the sky clear of birds today. It brought welcome warmer temperatures but pushed any avian travelers well off to the north of us. Instead, we looked at our Sistine Chapel’s blue dome with a slow parade of delicately constructed cirrus clouds resembling fish bones and bird’s feathers and calligraphy strokes. These usually foretell rain to come and tomorrow will bear fruit in that regard. It would normally be a day off for rain, but instead, it will be a day off because today was the last day of the count. It ended with a whimper on less than desirable winds, but the season was very successful, exceeding expectations, and easing concerns about the effects of forest fires occurring in our Canadian neighbor’s forests. We normally consider our benchmark to be about 120K but this year we exceeded 200K (despite what HawkCount currently says). It’s hard to say why the season was so bountiful but the funnel between Lake Huron and Lake Erie that feeds our site was very busy this year and we saw some extraordinary sights. Raptor Observations: We saw no extraordinary sights today. Local eagles were up and about and we had a couple of sightings of the local Coop, but even the local red-tails failed to show. We ended with a big fat goose egg. November is a hit or miss month anyway, and today was a miss. Non-raptor Observations: The slip in front of us was fairly empty today as well. The Bonie’s numbers had dwindled but they were quite active at times, other times they sat down on the water, since out on the lake the white horses were running before a robust wind. We did see some mergansers today, a few hooded were down in the channel and a pair of female common mergansers landed fairly close. Towards the end of the watch a group of about twenty-five shovelers flew by in tight formation. We had not seen these birds for some time and it was a pleasure to see them. A Fed Nav vessel passed by in the shipping channel and put up an amazing number of ducks out on the lake, I only wish they were a little closer. Predictions: My prediction is that I will not set the alarm tonight. I would like to thank all the people that contributed to making this season’s watch a success. That includes you, faithful followers of the watch. Three months is a long haul and it takes a village to get through it. Even those of you that provided companionship at the watch site helped to ease the passage of time. Our interns did a spectacular job and were a real help to the volunteers and counter. Our volunteers, who receive no compensation and do this for the love of nature, and to marvel at the scope of migration, deserve praise for donating their time through good weather and bad. Thanks to our manager at Fish and Wildlife who often had to work after-hours to circumvent the idiosyncrasies of the software we use. The work does not always end when we leave the site. I wish all of you good health and good times through the coming holiday season and new year. Bye for now…. Andrew ======================================================================== 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