Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 05, 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 1 1 1 Northern Harrier 0 9 9 Sharp-shinned Hawk 5 26 26 Cooper's Hawk 0 4 4 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 2 228 228 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 15 15 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 0 17 17 Merlin 0 1 1 Peregrine Falcon 1 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: 10 314 314 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Andrew Sturgess Observers: Erika Van Kirk, Frank Kitakis, 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: “The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind”. I’m not certain whether Mr. Einstein would have been stimulated enough to derive E=MC2 today, but he would have had plenty of time to work on it. The southern winds did their thing and moved the flight line out of sight for the most part. Winds were gradually increasing during the day, pushing moisture towards our area and producing some threatening radar blobs tinged with a lot of red off to the west of us. The temperature did push up to the eighty-degree mark so we took refuge in the shade of a maple tree to watch, mostly in vain, for vagrant raptors. The barometer was starting to fall slowly during the day, it will accelerate down the slope and drop below thirty inches overnight. Rain is in the forecast, but it may end up being scattered thunderstorms tonight and showers in the morning. Raptor Observations: It wasn’t a total loss today. We did see ten widely-spaced raptors. The sharpies have been on the podium recently and finally achieved the top step with five of them fluttering and gliding by. Broadwings were forced down a step with a meager two birds spotted. We counted one red-tailed hawk and one bald eagle. Saving the best for last, we had our first peregrine falcon today. A young bird, it put its hunting skills to the test by going after a kingfisher that had been hovering and diving in front of us. Being a young bird, it missed, and proceeded to fly directly over our location. It was the highlight of an otherwise very slow day. Non-raptor Observations: The area was fairly quiet today for the local non-raptor inhabitants. The cedar waxwings were still very busy, but a lot of the swallows and gulls must have moved with the wind to a better, more productive area. We had reports of various warblers and three types of vireos (warbling, Philadelphia and red-eyed) on the trail. A white-breasted nuthatch was noted in a nearby tree. A downy woodpecker was heard nearby. Most of the local eagles and turkey vultures were elsewhere today so it was a very quiet sky. Predictions: Flip a coin, it may rain tomorrow, it may not. The weathermen determine the forecast that way, so why shouldn’t we? We are due for a change in wind direction though. Winds should be coming from a northerly direction when they switch one hundred and eighty degrees sometime in the morning hours, maybe. The timing of these things is sometimes hard to predict. A cold front should pass through and bring cloud cover and lower temperatures; perhaps twelve degrees off today’s high and then staying in the sixties on the weekend. Saturday may even be in the high fifties. The barometer will be low on Friday and start to rebound on Saturday. I think most of the birds will skirt this system of low pressure and rain tomorrow but it should be better over the weekend, for Holiday Beach, as the wind will be NW at a robust fourteen mph and the barometer will be rising. ======================================================================== 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