Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 08, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 692 3770 53006 Osprey 0 0 36 Bald Eagle 6 33 226 Northern Harrier 29 110 567 Sharp-shinned Hawk 46 259 5227 Cooper's Hawk 11 30 267 Northern Goshawk 0 0 6 Red-shouldered Hawk 47 145 360 Broad-winged Hawk 1 6 25779 Red-tailed Hawk 373 803 1621 Rough-legged Hawk 2 3 3 Golden Eagle 3 8 11 American Kestrel 1 16 1726 Merlin 1 4 111 Peregrine Falcon 2 7 58 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: 1214 5195 89027 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Dan Lumm, Jeremy Bensette, Kit McCann, Kory Renaud Visitors: Many visitors on the tower, and I am so grateful for everyone's help, not an easy day on the eyes! Thank you Dan Lumm, Kit McCann, Kory Renaud, and Jeremy Bensette for their really great spotting today. Additional thank you to Noel Herdman and Dana (thanks you for the coffee and brownie!) for their help. Lastly, thanks to Tim Jarrold for taking time out a busy banding day to bring us an immature Red-shouldered Hawks to be released from the tower. Made my day! Weather: Another day of North-West winds! Raptors definitely took advantage of the wind and clear blue skies to migrate very high above the tower. Even if the sky made it hard to spot the birds, the sun kept us warm and light winds made the temperatures enjoyable. Raptor Observations: What a day! Not only did we count many individuals but we also had 13 different species passing the the tower today! All the usual species, but also including a Broad-winged Hawk, all three falcon species, Golden Eagles and Rough-legged Hawks. The most numerous species were the Turkey Vultures, Red-tailed Hawks and Red-shouldered Hawks. Happy to say that we counted both light and dark colour morphs of the Rough-legged Hawks. In the last 2 hours we also counted 3 Golden Eagles, the last one flying over as the hour rang, still counts! The majority of the raptors flew very high above the tower, just specs against the blue sky. Non-raptor Observations: If you thought the Crows were done migrating...think again! Today we counted over 6,000 American Crows crossing the marsh...the clicker did not stop clicking today. Other highlights included Sandhill Cranes, many Bluebirds, an Eastern Phoebe, a Fox Sparrow, Golden-crowned Kinglets and a squabble between a Swamp Sparrow and a Winter Wren. Still many ducks on the marsh, including more Buffleheads and a few Canvasbacks. Check out our full ebird list here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61280738 Predictions: Winds are to shift back to the South-West with clouds and some sun in the afternoon. Hopefully the raptors will be on the same trajectory and fly right over us. We are still expecting Northern Harriers, more Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, Rough-legged Hawks and Golden Eagles. Fingers crossed they'll show! ======================================================================== 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