Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 25, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Osprey 0 3 3 Bald Eagle 0 27 27 Northern Harrier 13 187 187 Sharp-shinned Hawk 169 3202 3202 Cooper's Hawk 3 56 56 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 1 1 Broad-winged Hawk 4 45173 45173 Red-tailed Hawk 0 184 184 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 32 993 993 Merlin 2 61 61 Peregrine Falcon 2 20 20 Unknown Accipiter 0 1 1 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 1 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Turkey Vulture 17 1633 1633 Total: 242 51543 51543 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Elizabeth Kent, Hugh Kent, Ian Woodfield, Michelle Mastellotto 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: A gorgeous day on the tower with the temperature warming up quickly in the morning due to the humidity from the morning evaporating and a complete lack of wind. Eventually the wind picked up in the afternoon, offering us a slight breeze from the South. Raptor Observations: A relatively normal September day with 169 Sharp-shinned Hawks flying past. We had an uptick in falcons with 32 American Kestrels, 2 Merlins, and 2 Peregrine Falcons. 13 Northern Harriers bounced over the tower, and we counted 3 Cooper's Hawks. We continue to see a few Broad-winged Hawks and we counted 4 today, as well as 17 Turkey Vultures. Our two local Ospreys and local Bald Eagles were also found flying back-and-forth over the marsh. Non-raptor Observations: Today's highlight was...and American Woodcock! This incredible bird flew out of the bushes and spent some time on the road leading to the tower. We had a lovely time looking at it and observed it's weird little walk. This is the 5th observation of a Woodcock at HMBO during the fall count, making it quite a special find. Another 46,830 Blue Jays migrated over the tower, and these numbers never cease to amaze us! Along with the Blue Jays, a few thousand Starlings moved around the marsh, as well as 1,031 American Goldfinches. American Coots are becoming more abundant over the marsh, as well as other species of waterfowl. A few Chimney Swifts were recorded, but we had no sighting of any species of swallows. Lastly, we are still counting a few Monarch Butterflies flying around us. Full ebird list:https://ebird.org/checklist/S74051042 Predictions: Tomorrow should be similar to today with a warm day and Southern winds. We hope to keep seeing the same diversity of species as we have in the last few day, and hope the pipeline does not run dry any time soon. We really hope to keep counting more falcons particularly Peregrine Falcons as the days go on, fingers crossed! ======================================================================== Report submitted by Maryse Gagné (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