Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 29, 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 1 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 2 2000 3302 Rough-legged Hawk 0 6 19 Golden Eagle 0 97 108 American Kestrel 1 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: 4 5956 188363 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 10:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 5 hours Official Counter: Andrew Sturgess Observers: Bill Peregord, Jackie Quinones, Rosemary Brady, Sam Heilman Visitors: Last chance to visit us and say howdy. We will be knocking off a little early to have a small celebration to end the season. Happy Holidays to all! Weather: The winds were frisky today, coming out of the SW at a good clip in the ten to fifteen mph range with occasional strange gusts coming from an unexpected direction, cooling the other side of our rosy cheeks. Temperatures were below freezing at the start of the watch, delayed for an hour because of the wind and temps, but gradually warmed above that mark by a few degrees. The barometer was headed down today, dropping about .25 of an inch of mercury over the entire day. That means bad weather is on the way. It will arrive on Friday in the form of rain. With a cold wind out of the SW, and below freezing temperatures, we relied on the glow of our camaraderie that we have built up over the season to keep us toasty warm as the penultimate day of the season’s watch held little promise in the way of migrant traffic. Raptor Observations: We saw an early morning kestrel fly through this morning, although that seems a little late for that species so maybe one has taken up local residence for the winter. Otherwise, all quiet on the Lake Erie Metropark front with only two red-tails and one bald eagle that followed our protocol. A disappointing day, but not entirely surprising given the time of year and weather conditions. Non-raptor Observations: Although the Bonaparte’s gulls stayed with us today, their numbers were diminished. The slip was much less populated today with fewer ducks, although a few female hooded-mergansers made an appearance. The ducks were up in massive numbers out on the lake. Most likely scaup, it was impressive to see as they stretched from the Livingston Channel over to the crib light like many thousand points of dark, if I may be permitted to corrupt that phrase from President Bush (41). This is one of the largest gathering areas for that species in the country and it is awesome to see them all up in the air at once. We kept a close eye out for the Barbro G, the vessel that has been in the local news as it had the misfortune to run aground in the Detroit River near Belle Isle. It took three G tugs to pull it free, as she is loaded with grain, apparently headed for Italy. She is currently anchored in the river. We see a lot of vessels in the grain trade at this time of year, a lot of them Canadian straight-deckers headed to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Predictions: What do we have to look forward to for the last day of the watch? A strong SW wind will bring us some relative warmth tomorrow and a lot of moisture on Friday. I suspect that we will see little in the way of migrant traffic again, as this wind is not a productive one at the best of times. This will be the last day of this season’s watch with plenty of time to reflect on the accomplishments of the quarter of the year that the watch is conducted. It was a bountiful year, despite the fears about the Canadian forest fires and their affects on the populations of raptors. Those fears were unfounded as we had a year that surpassed expectations. A word of caution as you look at our numbers on Hawk Count, they are not currently accurate. Computers and the programs that run on there sometimes do not play well together and sometimes they spit out numbers that are not aligned with the true sums that you should see. ======================================================================== 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