Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 04, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 51 1217 3390 Osprey 0 2 53 Bald Eagle 0 5 77 Northern Harrier 0 25 380 Sharp-shinned Hawk 59 401 4158 Cooper's Hawk 0 4 15 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 2 2 Broad-winged Hawk 0 26 107610 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 15 101 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 7 91 1076 Merlin 0 3 34 Peregrine Falcon 2 6 26 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: 119 1797 116924 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Andrew Sturgess, Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord, Jackie Quinones, Mark Hainen, Patrick Mulawa, Sabrina Salome, Sam Heilman 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: A day that indicated change was on the way as the sky was a kaleidoscope of frequent rearrangements of the cloud structures. Mostly clear skies were replaced by stratus for some time, but that cleared, revealing delicately crafted cirrus sculptures. In the last hour, a darker layer of stratus cloud moved in, looking more like the rain bearing clouds to come. Temperatures were in the high seventies but thankfully, we had a little breeze off the lake to keep us in a comfort zone to our liking. The barometer continued to fall during the day and will stay lower during the next week. Winds were mostly SSE; we were sheltered from the full brunt of them but we could see the birds reacting to the push. The official winds were around six mph but as the birds cross the slip in front of us, they face stronger winds that have come across Lake Erie with nothing to slow them down. Some crabbing was evident later in the day with the sharpies facing one direction but their actual line of flight was vectored sideways. Raptor Observations: I suppose we have gotten spoiled during September with hitting big numbers frequently, so 119 birds seem disappointing. But there have been many days with birds in the single digits, and sometimes that digit is zero, so perhaps when we remember those days of drought, we should be more grateful for days like today. Nah, I’m still disappointed. We started off the day with a sighting of two peregrines so it seemed that we might be on our way to a decent day. For the rest of the day, however, we mostly saw sharpies with little else to compete with them. Fifty-nine was the final total. We did have one movement of turkey vultures in the penultimate hour that came close to matching that number, fifty-one rocking and rolling by. Kestrels were not plentiful today with only seven making an appearance. Southern winds were probably responsible for our lack of traffic today. Non-raptor Observations: A relatively quiet day on the “other observations” front. Blue jays seemed to be off to a good start but they seemed to dry up with only a few hundred counted. Monarchs were also off the pace with forty-two notches on the post. The Forster’s terns were noted this morning, numbering less than ten. We only see one Caspian tern now. We had lots of boat traffic again today with the summer-like temperatures. This tends to disrupt the normal activity around us. Predictions: Tomorrow should have rain during the day. Although they are predicting over one-half inch total, we will see whether that holds up overnight. Precipitation should be coming in the early afternoon hours. Winds should be fairly brisk from the south so the signs are not looking good for the morning hours either. Colder temperatures will be ushered in over the next few days, becoming more seasonally correct with temps in the forties predicted for the start of next week. On paper, tomorrow does not look good for bird migration at our site. ======================================================================== 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