Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 01, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 303 303 1061 Osprey 0 0 25 Bald Eagle 0 0 92 Northern Harrier 11 11 253 Sharp-shinned Hawk 293 293 2684 Cooper's Hawk 8 8 70 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 69 69 24979 Red-tailed Hawk 0 0 144 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 112 112 1333 Merlin 0 0 81 Peregrine Falcon 2 2 23 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 2 Unknown Buteo 0 0 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 4 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 798 798 30753 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagne Observers: Elizabeth Kent, Hugh Kent, Jim McCoy Visitors: Understandably, only a few brave souls came to visit us on the tower today, only staying for a little bit in fear of melting up there! Thank you to Noel, John Barns, and Jim McCoy for their visit. Weather: On the first day of October, summer came out for one last hurrah! In the afternoon, temperatures reached 30 degree Celsius, with some cloud cover. We were surrounded by haze all day which lowered our visibility slightly. To top it off, the non-existent wind blew from the South/South-West when it decided to cool us off. Raptor Observations: Even with quite unfavourable winds, raptors flew in the morning, with a total of 798 raptors. The day was dominated by Sharp-shinned Hawks (293) and Kestrels (112). We also counted a few kettles of Turkey Vultures ending with a daily total of 303. We were glad to see 69 Broad-winged hawks fly above us, all very low to the tower, giving us a beautiful view! Non-raptor Observations: We had a very busy morning at the tower with raptors, Blue Jays, Blackbirds, Starlings, Cedar Waxwings and Goldfinches flying all around us! As temperatures increased, activity around the tower came to a screeching halt, but 5 Common Nighthawks graced us with their presence right at the end of the day. Blue Jay: 9,330 Red-winged Blackbird: 191 European Starling: 1,365 Cedar Waxwing: 137 American Goldfinch: 92 Tree Swallows: 250 American Coot: 272 Killdeer: 57 Chimney Swift: 15 https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60270140 Predictions: Tomorrow we are expecting a relatively warm day with light rain all day, but with winds from the West/North-West in the morning, shifting to the North-East in the afternoon. Tomorrow could be interesting migration, hoping for raptors, potentially more Northern Harriers. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Maryse Gagne (maryse.gagne35@gmail.com) Holiday Beach Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/ More site information at hawkcount.org: http://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=100