Date: 10/21/25 3:18 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [birders] Detroit River Hawk Watch (21 Oct 2025) 1121 Raptors
Detroit River Hawk Watch
Brownstown, Michigan, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 21, 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, 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:
On either end of a day that looked pleasant enough, unless you were outside
in it, we had bookends of heavy bands of rain at 0400 and 1600. The latter
with severe thunder storm warnings. The cards were stacked against us
today, with low pressure, a stout wind that started at thirteen mph, and
spiked at thirty as the storm approached, and finally the direction of the
wind for most of the day was south-southwest. This tends to alter the
flight lines to who knows where, as we don’t see most of them. The day
looked like a sunny fall day with a flotilla of white cumulus clouds
scudding by, driven by an irresistible wind, resembling the start of the
Heineken Regatta in St. Maarten. They soon left a bright blue sky littered
with small white fragments of genoas and spinnakers that had succumbed to
the wind. Although the wind never subsided, we were sheltered to some
degree by the windbreak behind us. The sixty-two- degree temperature made
it a more comfortable day than we had expected. The barometer has fallen
into the 29.6” range and that will last through tomorrow.
Raptor Observations:
Turkey vultures saved the day of course. They seem to take pleasure in
rough gusty winds that at times nearly turn them over. We counted one
thousand, and seventy-five today. For such adverse conditions, this
exceeded our expectations. The sharpies came in second with thirty-five of
them getting buffeted by the wind. The gusty conditions bring them close to
us as they try to stay below the wind, but photographing them is a serious
challenge as they bounce up and down out of the frame. Northern harriers
took the bronze with four birds, one a gray ghost. They often fly just
above the water to avoid the turbulence; we did see some sharpies doing the
same thing today. Red-tails finished just off the podium with three birds,
red-shoulders had two. A single Cooper’s hawk was counted, and one feisty
merlin was looking a meal, chasing a blackbird.
Non-raptor Observations:
The pelicans were not quite as active today, but had their moments. We
think several hundred are staying nearby. A Bonaparte’s gull and a common
tern sought some shelter in the slip today, but it was only a brief visit.
Red-winged blackbirds were starting to move today with several small flocks
undulating by. The blue jays took the day off to celebrate their
namesake’s advancement to the World Series, apparently, they took the
crows with them. Four super monarchs made it past the site in tough winds.
(Please excuse my cut and paste faux pas in yesterday’s report if you
received a flawed copy.)
Predictions:
The saving grace tomorrow is that the rain may help us to avoid a cruel
fate. A starting temperature of forty-six, only predicted to rise to near
fifty degrees, with southwest winds starting at thirteen mph and rising to
nineteen mph, what’s not to like? Full clouds should be the order of the
day with the potential for showers to delay the start of the watch. The
pressure will remain low until Thursday. Not a recipe for success, but the
vultures must move, whether we will see them is the issue.
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Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess (<ajyes72...>)
Detroit River Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://www.detroitriverhawkwatch.org
