Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 26, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 11 5138 54374 Osprey 0 0 36 Bald Eagle 0 39 232 Northern Harrier 1 329 786 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 410 5378 Cooper's Hawk 2 82 319 Northern Goshawk 0 0 6 Red-shouldered Hawk 5 606 821 Broad-winged Hawk 0 6 25779 Red-tailed Hawk 11 4339 5157 Rough-legged Hawk 0 21 21 Golden Eagle 0 23 26 American Kestrel 0 23 1733 Merlin 1 13 120 Peregrine Falcon 0 10 61 Unknown Accipiter 0 3 8 Unknown Buteo 0 13 25 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 3 7 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 33 11058 94890 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Bob Hall-Brooks, Dan Loncke, Dave Martin, Kory Renaud, Linda Wladarski Visitors: Many visitors today! Thank you Dan Loncke who was on the tower in the morning and thankfully saw the first few birds of the day. I was joined later by Dave Martin, Linda Wladarski, Kory Renaud, and Bob Hall-Brooks for the rush of raptors, which we were all glad to see. Finally, I was also joined by John Barnes in the morning and Mike Belanger in the afternoon. Thanks to everyone! Weather: A beautiful day on the tower, with a warm sun and very slight winds from the South-West. The day was so nice that for a brief hour we shed our coats and sweaters! The wind shifted towards the East as the clouds came in later in the afternoon, and without the sun, the air cooled dramatically. Raptor Observations: To everyone's surprise, we counted 33 raptors today! Most migrants all came at the same time, from 11-1pm, with a really busy hour from 12-1. We counted the usual Red-tails, Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks but a few Red-shouldered Hawks (5) made an appearance with a few remaining Turkey Vultures (11). Only one immature Northern Harrier, but the most interesting bird was a female Merlin flying right above the tower! Non-raptor Observations: Still quite slow on the non-raptor front, but we had a good few American Goldfinches and American Crows migrating over. The most interesting sighting was that of a butterfly, either an Eastern Comma or a Question Mark butterfly, spotted around the tower. I did say it got warm today! Check out our full eBird list here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61777698 Predictions: Tomorrow looks to be a write-off, for a few reasons. We are expecting a lot of rain overnight and continuing until late in the morning and picking back up in the afternoon. Additionally, we are expecting very strong winds from the South-West, potentially gusting up to 60-80km/h. Possibility of a quick count mid-day if the wind does not threaten to push me off the tower. ======================================================================== 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