Date: 9/16/25 5:59 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [birders] Detroit River Hawk Watch (16 Sep 2025) 4470 Raptors
Detroit River Hawk Watch
Brownstown, Michigan, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 16, 2025
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 8 hours
Official Counter: Jo Patterson
Observers: Alexa Blankenship, Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord,
Erika Van Kirk, Jerry Jourdan, Mark Hainen,
Michelle Peregord, Rosemary Brady
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:
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a
fool.” I’m not sure there is a winning side in that statement, but
only a fool would place his trust in the wind forecasts on any given day.
Although the winds seemed to be favorable, too much of a good thing is too
much of a good thing. We had a bathtub curve for the count today. Birds at
the beginning with northern winds, but as the wind grew in strength and
volatility, we faced the dreaded mid-day lull. As the wind shifted and
eased a little going east, and possibly east-southeast, we started see some
more traffic. We were cooled most of the day by the northerly winds which
rose to ten mph, or a little more. There were small whitecaps on the lake
until the change in wind direction knocked them down. The temperature
reached just above the eighty-degree mark. The barometer was starting to
tail off, after peaking near ten a.m.
Raptor Observations:
Of course, we did not expect to repeat yesterday’s performance of
twenty-four K birds, and truthfully, after last year’s record low count
of broadwings, we should be very happy with today’s count. But today was
Holiday Beach’s day to reap the benefits of the fickle winds. I’m sure
they enjoyed it as much as we did yesterday. We ended with four thousand,
two hundred and seventy-three broadwings. One hundred and eleven
sharp-shins came by today. The relative lack of those “usual suspects”
birds let us know that something was rotten in Denmark. Kestrels claimed
the bronze with fifty-two birds. Fifteen turkey vultures were notched.
Eight red-tailed hawks soared by. Six was the number for the harriers
today. Three bald eagles were counted and two peregrines zipped through.
Non-raptor Observations:
Our resident great egret, who is grumpy on the best of days, was furious
today as its regular perch, a floating post of some sort, was missing. It
made several approaches expecting to land in its usual spot, but there was
nothing to land on. The vegetation is starting to release and float up,
creating our version of the Sargasso Sea, and that may have allowed to log
to float off down the slip. The sky was fairly quiet today, we had a gull
kettle at the end of the day and the monarchs started to move in the last
hours. One hundred and forty-four were counted, as they were also affected
by the winds.
Predictions:
Can you say carbon copy? (Maybe I’m dating myself with that phrase.) The
forecast calls for northeast winds of less than five miles per hour for the
watch tomorrow, but I’m not falling for that again. Temperatures should
have an eight as the first digit by the end of the day. The barometer will
be headed south again, but should still be above thirty inches by the end
of the day. It should be sunny again, but the ten-day forecast shows more
cloudy days with a higher chance of rain, and a lower barometer. IF the
winds hold to the forecast strength, we may have a decent day. Today’s
winds were stronger than predicted out of the gate, and only got worse.
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Report submitted by Jerry Jourdan (<jerry.jourdan...>)
Detroit River Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://www.detroitriverhawkwatch.org
