Date: 9/17/25 3:19 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [birders] Detroit River Hawk Watch (17 Sep 2025) 3225 Raptors
Detroit River Hawk Watch
Brownstown, Michigan, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 17, 2025
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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, Erika Van Kirk, Mark Hainen,
Rosemary Brady, Sam Heilman
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:
N, NNE, N, SW, NNE, N, NNE, N, WNW, NNE, ENE, W, SE, S are the wind
directions that prevailed today, according to the airport weather station.
What’s a bird to do? It kept us busy chasing flight lines that would seem
promising, then change to a more challenging one. It required more energy
than any of us were inclined to spend on a day that reached temperatures
just north of eighty-degrees. Our A/C unit (Lake Erie and a wind blowing
over it) was intermittently effective, but maple tree shade helped. The
barometer was falling from midday on, but hung on to the thirty-inch mark
and should rise a little over the next three days. The clouds were a Friar
Tuck fringe of convective cumulus clouds that encircled us during the day,
but provided little shade, and not much of a backdrop overhead.
Raptor Observations:
We got off to our usual slow first-hour, with little wind to provide lift
to any would-be migrants. A pair of sharp-shins were our only participants.
The broadwings took to the air in the second hour and by day’s end had
accumulated two thousand, six hundred, and sixty-five. They were fairly
scarce in the last three hours, but the sharpies and kestrels upped their
game. Three hundred and ninety-eight shins made the clicker. The kestrels
were more prominent in the last two hours but given the vagaries of the
winds we were probably lucky to see eighty-six of them. Small, rapid
flyers, difficult to see at a distance in the haze, they can be by you in a
flash. We had a good harrier day, very good by our site’s standards, with
fifty-nine of them, usually in pairs, passing by. Eight bald eagles powered
through and four other big birds, the ospreys, joined them. It seems our
local osprey at the park entrance may have departed, since it has not been
seen on the nest for a couple of days now. We wish it safe travels on its
perilous journey. Three merlins were noted, and only two red-tails made the
count.
Non-raptor Observations:
I think we located the post/perch that the resident great egret was using
further down the slip today. Trouble was that a GBH had taken possession.
That was remedied later in the day, but the feathers will probably fly
tomorrow. We are still seeing cedar waxwings on the other side of the slip.
Yesterday, we had two advance guard blue jays. Today, we had seven hundred
and forty-two. Blue jay season has started! Caspian and Forster’s terns
are still present in small numbers, cormorants in large numbers. A wood
duck was noted flying by today.
Predictions:
Tomorrow should be a great day…for Holiday Beach. The winds are predicted
for northwest all day, although below five mph for the most part. On Friday
we should have northeast winds, but starting at five mph, and rising to
ten. We should be developing some cloud cover tomorrow, and despite the
northerly winds, which usually cool the air down, we should be hotter than
today at eighty-five degrees. The barometer will stay close to thirty
inches with a little dip in the afternoon. Another summer day for the most
part. It’s been an odd week with winds flipping around, but both we, and
our colleagues in Canada, have had one great day each out of it. Let’s
hope it continues…
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Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess (<ajyes72...>)
Detroit River Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://www.detroitriverhawkwatch.org
