Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 21, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 21 1549 1549 Osprey 0 2 2 Bald Eagle 0 27 27 Northern Harrier 3 157 157 Sharp-shinned Hawk 158 2486 2486 Cooper's Hawk 2 50 50 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 45167 45167 Red-tailed Hawk 1 184 184 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 1 942 942 Merlin 0 52 52 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: 186 50628 50628 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: A beautiful day on the tower, with very little wind and temperatures reaching 21 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. The winds, though not very strong, blew from the South-East all day, and we had no cloud cover whatsoever. Luckily raptors did not fly very high in the clear blue sky. Raptor Observations: Let's call today relaxing as we were not overwhelmed about the number of raptors flying overhead. In total, we counted 186 raptors, the majority of which were Sharp-shinned Hawks (158). A few Turkey Vultures attempted a lazy migration, and only 1 American Kestrel and 1 Red-tailed Hawk flew by. We also counted 2 Cooper's Hawks and 3 Northern Harriers. Today's migrants took full advantage of the thousands of Blue Jays flying in their way and made many hunting attempts at the jays and other small birds at the base of the tower. Non-raptor Observations: Today's non-raptor highlight was spotting our first Blue-headed Vireo of the season! We counted a few warblers including Cape May Warblers, Northern Parula, and Blackpoll Warblers. Blue Jays came in droves in the morning and we ended the count with 10,970 individuals. Still coming in big numbers are Goldfinches with 229 today. Only a few Ruby-throated Hummingbirds made appearances, but 17 Chimney Swifts flew by. The marsh species are slowly diversifying and we spotted once again the juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron and some Common Gallinules. Full ebird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73901980 Predictions: Tomorrow promises to bring pleasant temperatures but we don't have very high hopes for many raptors. Winds are expected to blow from the South-West all day. We are hoping to count at least 100 raptors and we expect that the majority of birds will be Sharp-shinned Hawks. ======================================================================== 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