Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 17, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 2655 32257 34361 Osprey 0 3 8 Bald Eagle 0 9 42 Northern Harrier 8 237 447 Sharp-shinned Hawk 150 3317 7266 Cooper's Hawk 7 114 186 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 19 86 87 Broad-winged Hawk 0 193 45366 Red-tailed Hawk 131 519 703 Rough-legged Hawk 1 1 1 Golden Eagle 1 1 1 American Kestrel 2 704 1916 Merlin 0 44 147 Peregrine Falcon 0 41 97 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: 2974 37527 90632 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Kory Renaud 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: After a chilly start to the day with cool winds from the West, a gradual warm up started as the sun came over the trees. The sun shone brightly and there were no clouds in sight most of the day. In the last hour however, a full cloud cover came over the area which drastically cooled off the air and stopped any raptor movement. Raptor Observations: A "golden" day which just kept on giving! The first Golden Eagle of the season was spotted at 12:40. The juvenile, with it's white wing patches and white tail, came in with a group of Red-tailed Hawk, soared in circles for a minutes before setting off across the marsh. The other really great find of the day was a light morph Rough-legged Hawk! The large buteo was seen in kettle of Turkey Vulture and stood out with it's dark wing patches and white tail with a dark band. It is a bit early for Rough-legged Hawk, but depending on the year they can be seen throughout the fall season. The main challenge of today's count was the height and distance at which birds were flying. I glued my eyes to the scope and counted streams of Turkey Vultures pass by while trying to catch the Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks in the mix. Overall, a great day on the tower with raptors aplenty! Non-raptor Observations: Relatively quiet for non-raptor species until a quick wave of small birds came through the bushes in the last hour of the count. In the mix, you could see a Hairy Woodpecker, Kinglets, Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Brown Creeper, a Carolina Wren, and to my surprise a Warbling Vireo! Blue Jays are still coming through with 11,410 individuals today. The marsh is very busy with waterfowl and today we added Ruddy Ducks to our list. American Wigeons, Northern Pintails, and Northern Shovelers are slowly building up their numbers. Full ebird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S74992465 Predictions: Tomorrow's weather seems unpredictable. A bit of rain is forecasted for the morning and then again in the afternoon. The sun is expected to shine in the afternoon as well with winds blowing from the South. Hopefully, the rain will wait or miss us all together so we can keep counting streams of Turkey Vultures and more soaring buteos! ======================================================================== 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