Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 24, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Osprey 0 3 3 Bald Eagle 0 27 27 Northern Harrier 8 174 174 Sharp-shinned Hawk 232 3033 3033 Cooper's Hawk 1 53 53 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 1 1 Broad-winged Hawk 2 45169 45169 Red-tailed Hawk 0 184 184 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 11 961 961 Merlin 1 59 59 Peregrine Falcon 5 18 18 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 Turkey Vulture 33 1616 1616 Total: 294 51301 51301 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: Winds blew from the South-West for most of the day, with a swivel to the South-East later in the afternoon. Winds from these direction do not seem to reach us and offer little to no breeze on the tower. A breeze would have made the day incredible as the sun blazed down on us and we became quite warm in the afternoon. The sky was a grayish-blue for most of the day with low visibility, making it difficult to see birds flying further North. Raptor Observations: On days where the winds blow with a southern component, we tend to get discouraged early during the count, but we sure love to be proven wrong! Today was a great day as we had many raptors fly over. Sharp-shinned Hawks (232) continue to be our most abundant flyers, but we spotted a few more American Kestrels(11) and Northern Harriers (8) today. Our raptor highlight was seeing our first Red-shouldered Hawk of the season! The juvenile showed off it's wing "crescents" enabling a quick identification. We will be seeing many more in the cooler months. We counted two more straggling Broad-winged Hawks, flying quickly to catch up with their friends! Lastly, we are counting more Peregrine Falcons racing past the tower. These falcons do tend to fly in southern winds so we should be counting more during the rest of the week. Non-raptor Observations: You get a Blue Jay, you get a Blue Jay, everybody gets a Blue Jay! We counted 44,730 Blue Jays flying past the tower today, with sheets of birds coming in the morning. To keep matters interesting, flocks of Starlings (2,530) decided to also fly in the area at the same time as Jays. Our other big migrant was the American Goldfinch with 2,467 individuals migrating past the tower. In the late afternoon, we counted a good number of warblers including Black-throated Blue, Black-and-White, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Parula, Palm, and of course Yellow-rumped Warblers. A few Monarch Butterflies and Chimney Swifts made the count but no Hummingbirds were recorded. Full ebird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S74013269 Predictions: Tomorrow we are expecting another nice, warm and sunny day with winds blowing from the South for most of the day. But do not despair, southern winds may bring us more Peregrine Falcons, and a few more Sharp-shinned Hawks. At this point, I'm hoping we beat today's numbers of Blue Jays tomorrow. I've got my clicker ready Jays, let's go! ======================================================================== 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