Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 16, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1 163 163 Osprey 0 1 1 Bald Eagle 0 19 19 Northern Harrier 5 83 83 Sharp-shinned Hawk 72 1045 1045 Cooper's Hawk 0 24 24 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 1 12317 12317 Red-tailed Hawk 0 81 81 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 17 634 634 Merlin 5 36 36 Peregrine Falcon 0 9 9 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 Total: 101 14415 14415 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 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: Quite the pleasant day in the tower with temperature rising to the mid-twenty degrees Celsius by the end of the afternoon. We are still surrounded by the smokey haze of the West Coast wildfires, but the haze felt lighter today. Winds blew from the South-West and the South later on, which did not bring us many birds. Raptor Observations: Just made it over the 100 bird mark today with 101 raptors flying over. Our main migrant was the Sharp-shinned Hawk (72), fluttering past the tower in small groups every hour. As usual, the American Kestrel was often close behind but only 17 individuals passed over. We saw more Merlins (5) flying above the marsh today, in their speedy and aggressive fashion. Five Northern Harriers flew quietly above the tower as well as one single Broad-winged Hawk. As entertainment, we witnessed a lot of chasing on the marsh today. For instance, a Bald Eagle chasing the Osprey (for it's lunch, I presume), a Merlin chasing Kestrels (of course!), and finally a Ruby-throated Hummingbird chasing a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Non-raptor Observations: Blue Jays are definitely on the move! Today we counted 901 Jays flying silently over the marsh. We also spotted a big murmuration of Starlings, approximately 600 birds. Warblers were still in abundance, and we are seeing more Palm Warblers, and plenty of Blackpoll Warblers. Some species are dwindling in numbers like the Cedar Waxwings, Swallows, Chimney Swifts, and some marsh dwellers like Great Egrets. Still many Monarch Butterflies migrating over the tower, we counted 166 individuals. Full ebird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73683482 Predictions: Winds will be on our side tomorrow as they are shifting to the North overnight. These winds should bring us more songbirds as well as hopefully more hawks during the day. There is a possibility of left-over Broad-winged Hawks that have not yet migrated over, as well as more of our usual species. ======================================================================== 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