Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 24, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1464 42909 45013 Osprey 0 4 9 Bald Eagle 2 15 48 Northern Harrier 14 302 512 Sharp-shinned Hawk 34 3742 7691 Cooper's Hawk 10 168 240 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 21 217 218 Broad-winged Hawk 1 195 45368 Red-tailed Hawk 124 975 1159 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 0 2 2 American Kestrel 4 715 1927 Merlin 0 50 153 Peregrine Falcon 0 49 105 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 1674 49346 102451 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: 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: After such a warm day yesterday, temperatures felt extra cold this morning. The mercury stayed around 5 degrees Celsius most of the day, only to warm up slightly in the late afternoon. The thick clouds covered the entire area until the last hour of the count, when the sun peaked through and some blue sky became visible. Northern winds blew all day, but did not manage to bring us as many bird as we had hoped for. Raptor Observations: All things considered, today was a successful day with 1674 raptors counted. We'd set our hopes high, expecting swirls of buteos and kettles upon kettles of Turkey Vultures. That was unfortunately not the case today. However, we counted 1464 Turkey Vultures with 500 of them coming during the last hour of the count. Red-tailed Hawks had a strong showing with 124 individuals, and 21 Red-shouldered Hawks were counted. We were very happy to count 1 Broad-winged Hawk and 4 America Kestrels! Hopefully, today's winds pushed migrating hawks towards use and they will all pass over tomorrow! Non-raptor Observations: Today's highlight: Evening Grosbeaks! Two flocks totaling 20 birds flew right by the tower, one of them even settled in a tree for a few second before taking off again. What a great find! The sky was quite full of birds today, mostly blackbirds, with flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds and Rusty Blackbirds flying across the marsh. At some points, they even formed massive murmurations. American Crows were abundant today with 7,230 individuals migrating over. They have a knack a finding the perfect time to fly; at the same time as masses of Turkey Vultures. Makes for good clicker fun! Our newest waterfowl addition to the marsh is the Canvasback! A few groups flew over and settled at the edges of the marsh along with thousands of other ducks. Full ebird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S75359264 Predictions: Now, I don't want to set my expectations too high for tomorrow, but winds are still from the North and will keep steady all day. It will be a cold start, but the sun will shine with little clouds which should warm up the air quickly. Let's hope for kettles of buteos and Turkey Vultures! ======================================================================== 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: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=100