Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 13, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1627 25113 27217 Osprey 0 2 7 Bald Eagle 0 8 41 Northern Harrier 3 209 419 Sharp-shinned Hawk 52 2943 6892 Cooper's Hawk 3 104 176 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 7 58 59 Broad-winged Hawk 0 193 45366 Red-tailed Hawk 32 289 473 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 0 677 1889 Merlin 0 43 146 Peregrine Falcon 3 37 93 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 1727 29677 82782 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Michelle Mastellotto 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: Such beautiful weather today; warm temperatures, a nice breeze from the West, and a clear blue sky! If only hawks enjoyed migrating under these circumstances. The blue sky sent the raptors very high and the westerns winds sent them quite far North all day long. Raptor Observations: Our first and last birds of the day were Peregrine Falcons! However, not a whole lot else in between them. Turkey Vultures were the most abundant by a long shot with 1,627 individuals. Kettles were all very far north of the tower, forcing the use of scopes to properly count migrants. Within the kettles, 32 Red-tailed Hawks and 7 Red-shouldered Hawks were spotted, looking small and brown compared to the vultures. Some Sharp-shinned Hawks flew, not even breaking 100 individuals, and 3 Cooper's Hawks and 3 Northern Harriers made their way across the marsh in their respective fashion. Non-raptor Observations: Blue Jays took a slight break today with only 11,150 individuals flying past the tower. We are getting very close to hitting a million jays, let's hope they keep coming a little while longer! American Crows have slowly started to move with 88 individuals. I may need to prep another clicker soon! In the afternoon, a small flurry of kinlgets and Yellow-rumped Warblers invaded the base of the tower and among them was an Orange-crowned Warbler. Lastly, ducks are becoming very abundant! Ring-necked Ducks, Gadwalls, and American Coots are taking over the marsh hiding among the dead vegetation. Soon they will be very visible and their true numbers will be revealed. Full ebird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S74787015 Predictions: Winds still staying West tomorrow and for the foreseeable future. There are some North-Western winds predicted for the early morning, before the count is set to begin, but they will quickly shift to the West. We can hope the North-West sticks around for a few more hours, and hope the birds who took the day off today decide to fly past us tomorrow. ======================================================================== 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