Date: 10/6/25 2:49 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [birders] Detroit River Hawk Watch (06 Oct 2025) 317 Raptors
Detroit River Hawk Watch
Brownstown, Michigan, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 06, 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, Johannes Postma
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:
Sad news. Someone saw fit to abscond with our Detroit River Hawk Watch
banner overnight. It was of little value, except to us. Today was also of
little value as a day of migration. Steadily growing winds off the lake
served to push most birds out of our sight, although a determined few made
the journey to our location. I can’t say that the conditions were ideal
as far as haze went, but it was marginally better today, allowing us to see
the turkey vultures a little more clearly. A flotilla of cumulus clouds,
apparently in no hurry to sail despite the insistent winds, kept us company
off to the northwest. The sky over the lake was essentially clear.
Temperatures once again broached the eighty-degree mark with room to spare,
as the southern winds, smelling of southwestern cuisine, brought the heat.
The barometer is falling a little, as rain appears to be on the way
tomorrow.
Raptor Observations:
The usual early October suspects filled the roster today. Turkey vultures
provided the bulk of the tally with two hundred and forty-four. Sharp-shins
claimed the silver, as per usual, with fifty-nine “flying mushrooms.”
Northern harriers totaled six. The kestrels were late arriving today, but
ended with three notches in the belt. One Cooper’s hawk and one peregrine
completed today’s count.
Non-raptor Observations:
The pelicans were back today, both flying and roosting out by the jetty. A
yellow-rumped warbler visited the small maple by our location. Both
Forster’s and Caspian terns were seen today. Tree swallows have been
present this year in smaller numbers than their historical levels, but
today made up for it, with many of them sweeping the skies. They are
usually a source of flak that makes it hard to search for birds, but today,
since we had few birds to search for, it wasn’t a problem. The blue jays
were on the move today with seven thousand, three hundred flying by, and
sometimes, directly over us. Monarchs were hard to find with only
twenty-one answering the bell today.
Predictions:
Change is on the way. Although the winds will start in the south tomorrow,
they will flip to the north and bring blessed relief from this unseasonal
heat wave that we have been in. Temperatures should drop by fifteen degrees
tomorrow, and even more on Wednesday. Hallelujah. Rain is in the forecast,
but who knows how much, and when. Rains have a habit of splitting around
our site as the lake asserts its influence. There should be plenty of cloud
for the rain to fall from, should it choose to do so. The barometer will be
at its bottom tomorrow, with a sharp rise starting late in the day, and
continuing through Wednesday. This turbulence and change should affect our
fortunes in a positive way, the timing is hard to predict tomorrow, but
Wednesday looks interesting.
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Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess (<ajyes72...>)
Detroit River Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://www.detroitriverhawkwatch.org
