Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 07, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 260 3078 52314 Osprey 0 0 36 Bald Eagle 5 27 220 Northern Harrier 35 81 538 Sharp-shinned Hawk 61 213 5181 Cooper's Hawk 4 19 256 Northern Goshawk 0 0 6 Red-shouldered Hawk 38 98 313 Broad-winged Hawk 4 5 25778 Red-tailed Hawk 226 430 1248 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 0 5 8 American Kestrel 3 15 1725 Merlin 0 3 110 Peregrine Falcon 0 5 56 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 5 Unknown Buteo 0 1 13 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 4 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 636 3981 87813 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Chuck Sharbaugh, Dan Lumm, Dave Martin, Dorothy McLeer, Jeremy Bensette, Kit McCann, Linda Wladarski, Paul Pratt Visitors: The Northern winds do not only bring hawks, but they also bring hawkwatchers! Today I was joined by Chuck Sharbaugh, Kit McCann, Dave Martin and Linda Wladarski (thanks for the hot chocolate and timbits!), Dan Lumm, Paul Pratt (thanks for the coffee!), Dorothy McLeer, Jeremy Bensette, John Barnes, and Noel Herdman. Thank you for all your help and company today! Additional thank you to Tim Jarrold for bringing up a Red-tailed Hawk and a Northern Harrier! Weather: Cold day, but worth the chill! Temperatures lingered around 0 degCel all day and the wind blew quite strongly from the North and North-West all day long. Some flurries around 9, enough to leave the floor of the tower white, but it all melted quite quickly. Extensive cloud cover in the morning, but they dissipated in the afternoon, leaving a clear blue sky with raptors very high above our heads. Raptor Observations: Thank you Northern winds! Today was wonderful, as we counted a wide variety and high number of raptors all flying very high above us. The big winners were the Red-tailed Hawks with 226 individuals, Red-shouldered Hawks at 38, and the Northern Harriers with 35 individuals! Of course, they were also accompanied by the usual Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper's Hawks, Turkey Vultures and Bald Eagles. Kestrels are still trickling in and to everyone's surprise we are still counting a few Broad-winged Hawks! Non-raptor Observations: Today's highlight was three American White Pelican flying over the marsh in the afternoon, what a splendid sight! At the end of the day, we also spotted 4 Sandhill Cranes far north of the tower. Among all the raptors, approximately 2,760 American Crows moved through. Tundra Swans were also flying very high above the tower, their white plumage shinning in the clear blue sky. Check out full ebird list here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61248209 Predictions: Tomorrow should also be a good day, with winds staying North until later in the afternoon. It will be a chilly day, but the sun is supposed to shine, with not much of a cloud cover. The hawks will probably be migrating high above the tower, but we are hoping for more Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks, Rough-legged Hawks and Golden Eagles. ======================================================================== 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