Date: 9/6/26 3:19 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [birders] Detroit River Hawk Watch (06 Sep 2026) 306 Raptors
Detroit River Hawk Watch
Brownstown, Michigan, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 06, 2026
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 15:00:00
Total observation time: 7 hours
Official Counter: Gracie Sangmeister
Observers: Andrew Sturgess, Bill Peregord, Michelle Peregord,
Rebekah Graham
Visitors:
We welcome visitors to our site at the Lake Erie Metropark Boat Launch. We
are always willing to discuss the events of the day. Let us share our
enthusiasm with you. There will be busy days, that may require our full
attention, but those are not that frequent, and they provide great thrills
for all. We can predict good days to some degree, but the exact hour is up
to the birds, so be prepared to put in some time for the best results. Pack
a lunch😊
Weather:
�Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,� and for
once, it was here in Mudville, (our new nickname following all the rain of
the last few days). A very pleasant day for those celebrating the Labor Day
weekend. Cumulus clouds did build during the day, providing a nice
back-drop to catch some of the high-flying birds, which nearly all of them
were. The heavy clouds did head out toward the lake in the late afternoon
hours, leaving us with more blue to deal with. The wind was mostly out of
the northeast, rising in strength to fourteen mph before falling a little;
veering more to the east in the later hours. The birds have been using this
tailwind to their advantage, staying high above the turbulence at treetop
level, surfing on following seas with hardly any flapping of wings needed.
The temperature peaked at seventy-seven degrees; our comfort was assured by
the winds out of the cooler north. The barometer did finally break the
thirty-inch mark, topping out at 30.08�, with more rise to come tomorrow.
Raptor Observations:
The broadwings finally got out of the starting blocks today, small kettles
appearing in the morning, small groups in the afternoon. They were the
birds of the day with two hundred and twenty-nine steaming though.
Sharp-shins and kestrels are picking up the pace too. Twenty-four sharpies
and twenty-two kestrels put them on the podium�s lower steps. Sixteen
red-tails joined in the race. Five northern harriers made the tally. Four
bald eagles were noted. One Cooper�s hawk and one peregrine falcon were
also seen. Most of these birds were very high today and very tough to see
with optical assistance.
Non-raptor Observations:
The gulls were up hawking today with kettles appearing in ever-changing
locations during the day. Lots of dark immature birds kept us on our toes
as they very much resemble soaring hawks, to the point of annoyance at
times. The pelicans made a cameo appearance today with six of them doing a
flyby up the river. Our resident kingfisher flew by a couple of times. Wild
turkeys were once again noted on the drive into the park. The swallows are
putting on weight for their migration, hundreds of them filling the air.
Forster�s terns and their larger kin, the Caspian tern, continued to
terrorize the minnows in the slip.
Predictions:
The winds will begin to go more easterly tomorrow, eventually working their
way around to south-easterly as we start to reach the end of the
high-pressure zone on Tuesday. The barometer will peak and start to fall on
that day, but the winds will not be favorable for us during the transition.
The temperature will be a few degrees cooler tomorrow with a predicted high
of seventy-four degrees. We should get a couple of hours of northeast winds
tomorrow morning according to Weather Undergrounds speculation, but the
afternoon should end with southeastern winds. Hard to say what we may
actually get, but the shifting winds will eventually shift the flightlines
to the north and away from us.
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Report submitted by Andrew Sturgess (<ajyes72...>)
Detroit River Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://www.detroitriverhawkwatch.org
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