Detroit River Hawk Watch Brownstown, Michigan, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 23, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 2859 66245 68326 Osprey 1 1 29 Bald Eagle 3 41 138 Northern Harrier 6 94 457 Sharp-shinned Hawk 65 845 3868 Cooper's Hawk 0 33 60 American Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 4 85 85 Broad-winged Hawk 0 47 51921 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Red-tailed Hawk 36 454 600 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 1 17 19 American Kestrel 0 40 963 Merlin 1 11 44 Peregrine Falcon 0 12 42 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 1 3 Unknown Falcon 0 0 3 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 6 9 Total: 2976 67934 126570 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Jo Patterson Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Don Sherwood, Johannes Postma, Mark Hainen Visitors: We welcome visitors to our site as we are eager to share the joys of hawk watching with one and all. Although there may be times in which we are all very busy and need alone-time to concentrate, those are the times that are most enjoyable for visitors as the skies are filled with migrating raptors. Weather: âPartly cloudyâ does not do justice to the grandeur and majesty of todayâs passage of variegated clouds that paraded by us today. It started with a panorama of tightly packed cumulus clouds over the lake on the far horizon, that backlit by the rising sun, strongly resembled a snow-kissed mountain range. The end of the day produced scattered dark clouds, so heavily laden that rainfall was inevitable, giving us the rare view of a double rainbow underneath a shower cloud passing nearby. It made putting up with the persistent push of westerly winds that grew from eight mph to a bracing seventeen, almost worth it. We are still adjusting to the change in seasons and may not be hardened off yet. Although the temperature rose to fifty-three, the real-feels were a few degrees lower due to windchill. The barometer rose today and will continue its climb tomorrow. It was a better day than yesterday, but there were still remnants of the low-pressure area clearing out. Raptor Observations: The winds were not from our most favored direction today so that may have affected the enthusiasm of the birds that chose to take a wild ride on the heaving air mass. The turkey vultures, who seem to love a challenging wind, gave it a shot, with two thousand, eight hundred and fifty-nine respondents. Sharp-shins, although having a hard time maintaining a constant altitude, gave us sixty-five to add to our total. Red-tails, most of them riding along in the streams of turkey vultures, added thirty-six. Northern harriers beat the red-shoulders by a count of six to four. Three bald eagles were taking the plunge. The number âoneâ was shared by an osprey, a merlin, and our unicorn bird for the day, a golden eagle that came near closing time. just after the rainbows appeared. Non-raptor Observations: The pelicans were interesting today. A school of bait fish, perhaps shad, had attracted the attention of a large assemblage of cormorants and raucous gulls, and the pelicans joined in. All of these birds were short-hopping to new positions to keep up with the moving school of fish. Later, the pelicans were gathered in a tight group of about thirty birds in their traditional feeding manner of dipping for fish, rather than diving as the brown pelicans do. We have not seen this behavior so close before, so the fish prey must be moving closer. Common terns were seen occasionally in the slip. I think the Caspian tern may have departed for warmer climes. We are seeing a lot more fly-bys from great egrets but the marsh, in which they usually spend most of their time, is nearly dry from low water levels. The blue jay season may be officially over. American crows are now the migrant corvid to watch; today we had one hundred and seventy-seven. Monarchs were unable to handle the winds today and were absent without leave. Predictions: The barometer will continue to climb tomorrow and perhaps the winds will behave themselves and become more tolerable for birds and humans alike. They are shown to be ranging from west to northwest, and seven to ten mph. They should be dropping as the high pressure becomes more established and the winds are not rushing into the receding low-pressure area. Much like heat which travels from high to low, touch your range burner to prove it, winds also flow from high to low. Heat will be moving from our bodies to the colder air surrounding it, as it will be only in the very low fifties tomorrow. The next two days will have potential since winds will be northwest tomorrow and a lower strength northeast direction on Saturday. The turkey vultures will continue to move, and hopefully, a monster red-tailed day is in our future. We have not had one yet. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess ([email protected]) 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 -- Ontbirds and Birdnews are moderated email Listservs provided by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) as a service to all birders in Ontario. Birdnews is reserved for announcements, location summaries, first of year reports, etc. To post a message on Birdnews, send an email to: [email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Birdnews Moderators by email at [email protected]. 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