Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 22, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 364 49224 50157 Osprey 0 2 18 Bald Eagle 0 66 99 Northern Harrier 1 107 290 Sharp-shinned Hawk 44 1043 3180 Cooper's Hawk 0 30 69 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 121 121 Broad-winged Hawk 0 36 6784 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 463 518 Rough-legged Hawk 0 4 4 Golden Eagle 0 11 11 American Kestrel 2 114 393 Merlin 1 9 23 Peregrine Falcon 0 17 25 Unknown Accipiter 0 6 11 Unknown Buteo 0 13 26 Unknown Falcon 0 4 12 Unknown Eagle 0 1 1 Unknown Raptor 0 5 27 Total: 413 51277 61770 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Michael Patrikeev Observers: Ben Sehl, Jo Patterson Visitors: We welcome visitors to our site by the boat launch in Lake Erie Metropark! We have brochures and educational information we are happy to share. Let us share our enthusiasm for migration and raptors with you! While we welcome your questions and company, please know our professional counter, apprentices, and volunteers must communicate with each other frequently to successfully conduct the count and they also must maintain an unobstructed view of the horizon. Big shout out to the very kind gentleman that brought us an identification question about a hawk he had seen recently. We worked together using some guide books and our hawk watch brochures to identify the bird as a red-tailed hawk! Weather: Today was a beautiful day at the count site. A high of 68 F (20 C) and constant moderate wind up to 10 mph (16 kph) out of the south. There were some high, wispy clouds for the entire day that provided great contrast for our few birds that flew over. There was a haze in the distance that made our view of Canada and the turkey vultures flying there slightly difficult to see. Raptor Observations: The migrating raptors were few and far between today. The morning started very slow, with only two sharp-shinned hawks in the first two hours. These slow starts have been a common theme in the past few days of warmer weather and southern winds. The peak of the action was around mid-day and the following hour. Turkey vultures could be seen gathering far and low over Canada. They had to be counted there as only a few ever reappeared after streaming behind Celeron island’s trees. We finished with 364 on the day. The 44 sharp-shinned hawks that passed gave us much better views, flying relatively low and sometimes directly overhead. Our few other birds included 2 kestrels zooming past, a northern harrier, a red-tailed hawk and a merlin. Non-raptor Observations: There were relatively few other birds active in the channel in front of the count site. However, we were enthralled by the interactions between the few gulls, fishermen and fish. There were several yellow perch and a mystery fish, potentially stunned after being caught by the fishermen, floating the water. The gulls made a big show of picking them up and fighting for the right to eat them. We also saw 63 crows fly past in a few small flocks. Predictions: As many volunteers have hypothesized, the warm spell and southern winds have stifled the migration of our raptors. As the weather begins to cool and the winds shift in the next few days, we hope to start seeing larger movements of turkey vultures and other raptors. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Erika Van Kirk (erika_vankirk@fws.gov) 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