Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 11, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 68 75 75 Osprey 0 1 1 Bald Eagle 8 11 11 Northern Harrier 2 39 39 Sharp-shinned Hawk 44 63 63 Cooper's Hawk 6 13 13 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 258 366 366 Red-tailed Hawk 37 56 56 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 47 310 310 Merlin 0 18 18 Peregrine Falcon 0 7 7 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 1 1 1 Total: 471 962 962 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Dave Martin, Hugh Kent, Ian Woodfield, Linda Wladarski, Michelle Mastellotto, Noel Herdman 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 fresh start to the day with strong winds from the North all day long. More blue sky today and the cloud cover almost disappeared completely by the end of the day. Of course, this made spotting raptors more difficult but we enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Raptor Observations: A Swainson's Hawk was spotted today at 12:25 flying right above the tower! This Western migrant showed off its dark slender wings and pale body to us for a few minutes before heading off. For our head counter, who is also from Western Canada, this sighting was very exciting and she was thrilled to see a familiar face in the sky! Aside from the rarity, the day was filled (471 raptors) with many raptors like with Broad-winged Hawks (258), most of them streaming past the tower high into the blue. We are seeing more migrating Sharp-shinned Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, and Turkey Vultures, species that had not been very active since the beginning of the count, but are now starting to move. Non-raptor Observations: Today's non-raptor highlight was a Black-billed Cuckoo spotted at the base of the tower for a brief minute! Warblers were in abundance all over the park but did not seem to make their way to the tower. A few were recorded in the morning but our attention quickly returned to the sky where hawks were aplenty. Not as many swallows flew by today, but we still counted a few Chimney Swifts, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, and Nighthawks. Full ebird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73471796 Predictions: Tonight the winds are shifting away from the North and will stay that way for a few days. Tomorrow we are expecting winds from the East and South-East which may put a damper on our bigger flights. We are hoping that despite the change in winds we will still see a good number of migrants, particularly more Sharp-shinned Hawks. ======================================================================== 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