Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 18, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 73 141 141 Osprey 0 7 7 Bald Eagle 1 17 17 Northern Harrier 8 67 67 Sharp-shinned Hawk 151 737 737 Cooper's Hawk 1 8 8 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 737 3083 3083 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 1 33 33 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 50 140 140 Merlin 0 7 7 Peregrine Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Accipiter 0 4 4 Unknown Buteo 2 8 8 Unknown Falcon 0 2 2 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 1 14 14 Total: 1025 4269 4269 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Michael Patrikeev Observers: Bill Peregord, Jerry Jourdan, Jo Patterson, Mark Hainen, Rosemary Brady Visitors: We welcome visitors to our site by the boat launch in Lake Erie Metro Park. We are willing to spread the gospel with pamphlets and information cards, along with tips on identifying the raptors, and photography tips for those behind the cameras. Let us share our enthusiasm for this miracle of nature with you. Weather: Another warm sunny day with light winds not exceeding 3 miles per hour. According the Weather Underground website, wind directions changed every hour, from East-North-East to South, then North-West, and then South again. This was probably erroneous, an artifact of detecting little or no wind by the weather station instruments. As far as we could tell from the riverbank by watching flags on the flagpoles, the wind came from the northeast in the morning, and changed to South in the afternoon. Temperature rose from 68 to 78 F (20-26 C). Cloud cover of ca. 20% throughout the day. The clouds were of great assistance to the counters, as hawks passing at great heights were more visible against the clouds. Raptor Observations: For the first time in September 2024, we logged more than a thousand raptors a day. As expected, the majority were Broad-winged Hawks (737). A kettle of fifty was seen in the morning, and then nearly six hundred made an appearance between 2 and 3 PM EDT (13:00 to 14:00 hrs EST) swiftly gliding over the count site, nearly non-stop. Jo should be credited for spotting many of the streaming birds. By 3 PM the Broad-winged show was mostly over. Sharp-shinned Hawks and American Kestrels were also seen in good numbers today (151 and 50, respectively). Both species were more conspicuous in the last hour of count, after the stream of Broad-winged Hawks dried up. Turkey Vultures were also on the move (we counted 73). Non-raptor Observations: Large flocks of Blue Jays were on the move today (a total of 1,350 birds were entered in the datasheet). A pair of Sandhill Cranes was welcoming park visitors not far from the metro park entrance. Two Black-crowned Night-Herons flew upstream as we were wrapping up for the day. Predictions: With no weather change in the forecast, we expect to see similar or greater numbers of Broad-winged and Sharp-shinned hawks moving through the area. In the last two days, higher numbers of the Broad-wings were seen after 1 PM EDT. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Erika Van Kirk (erika_vankirk@fws.gov) 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