Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 05, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 0 2 2 Osprey 0 0 0 Bald Eagle 0 0 0 Northern Harrier 1 9 9 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 4 4 Cooper's Hawk 0 3 3 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 0 1 1 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 7 42 42 Merlin 0 3 3 Peregrine Falcon 0 2 2 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 1 1 Total: 8 67 67 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, 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: Cooler start to the day with dark clouds looming over the marsh for the better part of the morning. After a few hours, breaks between the cloud let in the sun to warm up the air. The wind played tricks with us all day, starting off blowing from the West in the morning, switching to the South-West, then from the South-East for an hour and back to South for the last hour, bringing with it menacing black clouds. Thankfully none of these dark cloud brought any rain. Raptor Observations: Slow day for us on the today with only 8 raptors migrating over. Once again the majority of raptors were American Kestrels apart from a juvenile Northern Harrier gently flying over the marsh. Even the local Ospreys, Bald Eagles, and Peregrine Falcons were not as active as the last few days. We are still waiting patiently for our first Broad-winged Hawks, who seem to have discovered the Detroit River Hawk Watch and not Holiday Beach just yet. Guess we will have to wait a little longer, but it will be worth it! Non-raptor Observations: Today's highlight was... a Great Horned Owl! The gorgeous bird was spotted in the trees to the North-East of the tower and we used our scopes to get a clear view since it was so well camouflaged. This is 10th sighting of a GHO at Holiday Beach during the hawk count, making it quite a special observation. Apart from the owl, we had a plentiful group of passerines pass through including Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Baltimore Oriole, Prothonotary Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue and Green Warblers, Wilson's Warbler, to name a just few. Not as many swallows and Chimney Swifts, or Hummingbirds today. But Cedar Waxwings and American Goldfinches are still very active. Full ebird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73231744 Predictions: Once again, overnight winds from the North tonight, which may bring us some passerines during the day. The Northern winds may stay for a few hours in the early morning but will quickly turn to the South-East for the rest of the day. Apart from the wind it should be a pleasant day on the tower. Waiting for the arrival of Sharp-shinned Hawks and of course more American Kestrels. ======================================================================== 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