Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 20, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 7128 40893 42997 Osprey 1 4 9 Bald Eagle 1 10 43 Northern Harrier 16 257 467 Sharp-shinned Hawk 96 3496 7445 Cooper's Hawk 36 155 227 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 79 189 190 Broad-winged Hawk 1 194 45367 Red-tailed Hawk 303 841 1025 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 1 2 2 American Kestrel 6 710 1922 Merlin 0 48 151 Peregrine Falcon 3 49 105 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 1 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 7672 46851 99956 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Jeremy Bensette, Michael Arthurs 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: The predicted Northern winds stayed blowing in that beautiful direction all day long! The temperature was cool staying around 10 degrees Celsius most of the day. Thin clouds in the sky helped us spot high flying raptors, but were not enough to drive them any lower. Finally, the predicted rain for the morning never showed up and is not expected for later this evening. Raptor Observations: Don't you just love the combination of clear skies and Northern winds during buteo season! What a great day on the tower with 7672 raptors in total. As expected, our most abundant migrant was the Turkey Vulture with over 7000 individuals, forming massive kettles and streaming right over the tower. They were accompanied by 303 Red-tailed Hawks and 79 Red-shouldered Hawks. We also counted a good number of Cooper's Hawks (36), flying very high with a few Sharp-shinned Hawks (96). We were happy to spot a Broad-winged Hawk and a few falcons for the count. At the end of the day, as it seems customary, a juvenile Golden Eagle was spotted flying on the southern side of the tower right over the lake. We were all silently hoping to see one today and our wishes came true! Non-raptor Observations: There's a new migrant in town; the American Crow! We knew they were picking up speed, but today they went for it as 15,350 Crows migrating over the marsh. At points in the afternoon, all your could see were sheets of crows! Blue Jays are still coming through with 1580 individuals today. We also heard Horned Larks, Eastern Bluebirds, and American Pipits. We were happy to spot 2 Wilson's Snipe chasing each other flying right over the tower this morning. Finally, our new addition to the duck list today was Redhead ducks. Other waterfowl species remain very abundant. Full ebird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S75156460 Predictions: Clearly the winds can't stay North forever, and they will shift back to the South-West tomorrow morning. There is also rain expected in the morning which should hopefully clear by mid-day. In the afternoon, we hope to see more Red-tailed Hawks and of course 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