Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 03, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 0 0 0 Bald Eagle 0 0 0 Northern Harrier 0 0 0 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 7 7 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 0 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 17 17 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 0 0 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 1 7 7 Merlin 1 2 2 Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 2 33 33 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Kevin Georg Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Mark Hainen Visitors: We welcome visitors to our site and are very willing to share information and ID tips with them. 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: All quiet on the Western Front. We are on the backside of a high-pressure zone with the winds coming generally from the SW and bringing the heat and humidity. The weather followed the script today with partly cloudy skies to start, clearing during the middle hours of the day and mostly high cirrus clouds and airplane contrails filling in later in the day. We had nothing to distract us from the uncomfortable combination of heat and humidity except the boating activity in front of us. (Including one boat with four 450HP outboards on the transom! I mean who needs 1800HP to go fishing?) Temperatures reached the high eighties, but with the humidity it felt like just over ninety. Winds were increasing in strength from the morning hours and provided occasional relief, depending on direction, as they topped off at fourteen mph. The barometer dropped below the thirty-inch mark in a slow but steady decline. These conditions will prevail over the next couple of days until some metrological conflict is predicted as we change systems with potential thunderstorms on Wednesday and Thursday. Holiday Beach may benefit from the NW winds, along with a rising barometer, that follow on Friday. We will all benefit from the lowered temperatures that are predicted to reach the high sixties as the northern winds bring cooler air and blessed relief. Raptor Observations: A curious day as we only had two falcons in the first hour of the day. An American kestrel was observed hawking dragonflies and a few moments later, a merlin flew over us. We had the usual coterie of local eagles, ospreys and red-tails soaring insouciantly on the sufficiently fresh winds to bear them easily. I suspect it must have felt more comfortable to them than to us earthbound humans. Most of them refuse to come into camera range, afraid that I may capture their souls, or some such superstition. Better days are coming but first we must pay our dues. Non-raptor Observations: The usual suspects were present today, great egret, double-crested cormorants, ring-billed gulls, cedar waxwings and a pair of killdeers flew by. Mallards were present in surprisingly large numbers today. A large number of them took off from behind Celeron Island and, at first, I assumed that an eagle must have put them up. They continued to fly by most of the day in more numbers than we usually see in our little corner of the Frank and Poet Drain. We had a number of warblers take up residence in the large maples near us in the final hours keeping a downy woodpecker and a flicker company. Although difficult to see in the leaves, we IDed Cape May and yellow-rumped, although others were present but proved too elusive to positively identify. Predictions: If you liked today’s weather, you will love tomorrow. We will continue to bathe in heat and humidity with SW winds bringing a little bit of Houston weather our way. Temperatures may be approaching record highs in the area, possibly breaking the ninety-degree mark. (We have been advised to update our wills tonight in preparation.) I suspect, given the similarity to our weather today, droves of birds will continue to stay away. If they don’t want to migrate, nobody’s gonna stop them, as Yogi might have said. ======================================================================== 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