Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 07, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 6 6 Osprey 0 0 0 Bald Eagle 0 1 1 Northern Harrier 0 10 10 Sharp-shinned Hawk 4 31 31 Cooper's Hawk 0 4 4 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 3 231 231 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 15 15 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 0 17 17 Merlin 0 1 1 Peregrine Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Accipiter 0 2 2 Unknown Buteo 0 3 3 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 1 1 Total: 7 323 323 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Michael Patrikeev Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Jo Patterson, Mark Hainen Visitors: We welcome visitors to our site by the boat launch in Lake Erie MetroPark. We are willing to spread the gospel with pamphlets and information cards, along with tips on IDing the raptors, and photography tips for those behind the cameras. Let us share our enthusiasm for this miracle of nature with you. Weather: Our run of bad luck continues with a day that should have produced birds but a persistent northwesterly wind raged all day, up around the fifteen-mph mark. The temperatures were just able to break the sixty-degree mark but it was one of those days where you didn’t take your outdoor clothes off for a little while after entering the house. At least I look a little younger as my windblown face has tightened enough to erase a few wrinkles. The skies were mostly dirty gray stratus clouds in the morning hours, with occasional blue fissures that expanded as the day went on, allowing more sunshine to penetrate later in the day. The barometer was rising, but only a tenth of an inch over the course of the watch. The pressure readings that are predicted in the coming week are unusual in which they seem to be the inverse of the temperature, as the temperature rises, the pressure falls. Only by a tenth or so each day, but it’s almost pixelated, something that I have not seen before. Perhaps they have tried to incorporate A.I. into the predictions and like everything else, it has made bizarre, and untrustworthy, what used to be ordinary. Raptor Observations: Most of our scanning the sky today was without consequence. Although the local eagles and osprey were up enjoying the fresh winds in the morning, most migrants were being pushed elsewhere by the demon wind. We did manage to award the sharpies the top step of the podium and broadwings the second, but no bronze was given today as those were the only two species that showed up. Four sharpies and three broadwings. We think these were outliers to a larger movement that may have been happening elsewhere that we were not privy to. Non-raptor Observations: The swallows were back in force today, at times low just over the water, and other times high in the sky where we were scanning for raptors. The pelicans showed up in force also with well over one hundred on display, fracturing into smaller groups as they like to do. At times they teamed up with the cormorants, who seem to have increased in number, chasing schools of baitfish to various locations. A Carolina wren has taken over from the warbling vireo to work on the soundtrack for the watch. A trio of pintail ducks and a duo of blue-winged teal made a cameo appearance. There are lots of mallards and Canada geese around, occasionally up in formation practicing their drafting techniques as the young ones need to learn the discipline to stay on station. Pied-billed grebes continue to ply their trade in the vegetation covered parts of the slip. Cedar waxwings seem to have moved a little further away from us, but are still present. Predictions: The wind strength will dip tomorrow and change to a more westerly direction. It will rise into the double digits during the watch, however, making a prediction a little tricky. Temperatures will be climbing each day during the coming week, reaching the eighty-degree mark on Thursday. I’m not sure I trust the barometric predictions as they seem too odd and erratically precise to be believed. Perhaps the apocalypse is upon us, perhaps it’s just a typo. Mostly sunny skies will greet us and last through most of the watch. I hope for better results tomorrow, but we will wait for all precincts to report. ======================================================================== 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