Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 21, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 0 155 155 Osprey 0 21 21 Bald Eagle 0 77 77 Northern Harrier 1 131 131 Sharp-shinned Hawk 28 1200 1200 Cooper's Hawk 1 37 37 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 24779 24779 Red-tailed Hawk 0 123 123 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 27 343 343 Merlin 2 40 40 Peregrine Falcon 0 7 7 Unknown Accipiter 0 2 2 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 4 4 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Total: 59 26920 26920 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagne Observers: Elizabeth Kent, Hugh Kent, Jeremy Hatt, Patrick Tomlinson, Steve Wagner Visitors: As the first day of the hawk festival, we welcomed 280 visitors to the tower! Thank you to everyone, big and small, who came to say hello and try to see a hawk. We truly appreciate your support and hope to see you around again. Weather: What hot day on the tower! The thermometer reached 28 degree Celsius with very high humidity and clear blue skies. When the breeze did blow for a few seconds it came from the South and South-West later in the day. Raptor Observations: Today was the first day of our Hawk Festival, and clearly the hawks did not get the memo. With such heat and unfavourable winds, we had a daily total of 59 raptors, most of which were Sharp-shinned Hawks (28), and Kestrels (27). We did count one Northern Harrier and two Merlins right at the beginning of the day. Fortunately, the raptors that did fly over were very low to the tower and were in good view, much to the delight of our many visitors. Non-raptor Observations: We are very happy to be back on the tower to count! Once again, we want to thank Essex Regional Conservation Area (ERCA) for their hard work cleaning up the park to get us back on the tower. Today was exciting as we counted more species of ducks, including Gadwalls, Northern Shovelers and American Widgeon. We also counted many American Coots and Killdeer. Our highlight of the day came from the woodpeckers, as we counted 2 Red-headed Woodpeckers and 8 Northern Flickers. Not many warbler flying in the tree surrounding the tower and we are still waiting on the big movements of Blue Jays. American Coot: 17 Killdeer: 36 Chimney Swift: 12 Northern Flicker: 8 Blue Jays: 27 Cedar Waxwing: 201 American Goldfinch: 67 Monarch: 24 https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S59988387 Predictions: Tomorrow we are expecting another beautiful and hot day on the tower. The winds are expected to blow harder but from the South-West. We hope to see many Sharp-shinned Hawks and Kestrel flying above us. Join us for the Festival of Hawks tomorrow! We will be counting on the tower but we will also have displays and live hawks from the Kingsport Environmental Displays for you to enjoy. Come along to Holiday Beach from 9-3. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Maryse Gagne (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