Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 18, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1339 33596 35700 Osprey 0 3 8 Bald Eagle 0 9 42 Northern Harrier 2 239 449 Sharp-shinned Hawk 19 3336 7285 Cooper's Hawk 1 115 187 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 87 88 Broad-winged Hawk 0 193 45366 Red-tailed Hawk 5 524 708 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 0 1 1 American Kestrel 0 704 1916 Merlin 3 47 150 Peregrine Falcon 2 43 99 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 1372 38899 92004 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Elizabeth Kent Visitors: We appreciate all the interest in the tower and the hawk watch but remind everyone that the tower remains closed to members of the public and has a three-person limit reserved for the Hawk Counters. Thank you to all who are respecting these precautions. Be safe everyone! Weather: The day started overcast and then rained for a couple of hours. After the rain stopped, the day gradually brightened up but remained cloudy. The wind was light to moderate from the south. The temperature was in the low to mid teens throughout the day Raptor Observations: A much slower day, with reduced numbers across the board. The Turkey Vultures still migrated in reasonable numbers (1339), with only 5 Red-tailed Hawks and one Red-shouldered Hawk following them. I was good to see 3 Merlins and 2 Peregrines flying low and fast over the marsh. Non-raptor Observations: The Blue Jay tap slowed to a trickle today with only 405, it will be interesting to see over the next few days if this is the end of the migration. Waterfowl numbers continue to rise on the marsh with 800 Gadwall and 660 Ring-necked Ducks. It was good to see a flock of Rusty Blackbirds (77), and we had an interesting movement of Ring-billed Gull of over 900 west along the shore for the first 3 hours. A nice Blackpoll Warbler was seen at the end of the day. The full list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S75067231 Predictions: Looks like rain all day tomorrow, but the wind is from the north-west so we may get some raptors. However only Northern Harriers seem to fly in rainy weather, but we do hope for more. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Hugh Kent (Hughnkent@gmail.com) Holiday Beach Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/ More site information at hawkcount.org: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=100