Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 02, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 578 881 1739 Osprey 0 0 25 Bald Eagle 0 0 92 Northern Harrier 26 37 279 Sharp-shinned Hawk 286 579 2970 Cooper's Hawk 5 13 75 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 1 1 Broad-winged Hawk 209 278 25188 Red-tailed Hawk 1 1 145 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 111 223 1444 Merlin 1 1 82 Peregrine Falcon 1 3 24 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: 1219 2017 32072 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagne Observers: Elizabeth Kent, Hugh Kent Visitors: Despite the weather, we had one brave visitor who chose a very good day to come to the tower! Thank you Edmund for your help and support spotting raptors in the gray sky. Weather: Fall has finally arrived to Southern Ontario. We had a pretty gloomy day, with complete cloud cover and drizzling in morning turning into rain in the afternoon. Luckily, winds were strong and blew from the North/North East all day, bringing along many raptors. We ended early due to a good amount of rain and not many raptors flying the afternoon. Raptor Observations: Despite the gloomy weather we had a very successful day with a daily total of 1219 raptors! We counted many kettles of Turkey Vultures (578) in which were sprinkled many Broad-winged Hawks, and they even had a few small kettles of their own, giving us a daily total of 209 Broad-winged Hawks. Our big highlight was seeing our first Red-shouldered Hawk of the season! We'll be seeing plenty more in the coming weeks. As usual, we also counted a lot of Sharp-shinned Hawks (286) and American Kestrels (111), often coming in groups of 4-6 at a time. Lastly, we counted 26 Northern Harriers, which are such a treat to watch flying above us. Needless to say were kept very busy today! Non-raptor Observations: Not a very busy day for non-raptor species, but we were kept busy in the morning with 9,730 Blue Jays migrating overhead. The newest additions to the marsh are the Ring-necked ducks and Green-winged Teal (1). We also counted many American Coots, Starlings, and Red-winged Blackbirds. We also counted 15 Monarch butterflies bravely migrating through the raindrops. Blue Jay: 9,730 Red-winged Blackbird: 160 Northern Shoveler: 25 Northern Pintail: 15 Ring-necked Duck: 10 American Coot: 306 Starling: 765 Monarch butterfly: 15 https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60291676 Predictions: Tomorrow we are expecting another gloomy and wet day on the tower. Light rain is expected to fall all day, only to clear in the late afternoon. Winds are expected to blow from the East in the morning, only to shift to the West in the afternoon. Hopefully we will see more kettles of Turkey Vultures, maybe with a few more Broad-winged Hawks mixed in! Hoping for more Northern Harrier and if all else fails, more Sharp-shinned Hawks and Kestrels. ======================================================================== 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