Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 09, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 2713 21095 21953 Osprey 0 4 29 Bald Eagle 5 26 118 Northern Harrier 2 90 332 Sharp-shinned Hawk 24 1506 3897 Cooper's Hawk 10 73 135 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 15 42 42 Broad-winged Hawk 0 861 25771 Red-tailed Hawk 28 144 288 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 1 1 American Kestrel 5 379 1600 Merlin 0 12 93 Peregrine Falcon 1 13 34 Unknown Accipiter 0 3 5 Unknown Buteo 2 6 7 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 4 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 2805 24256 54311 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, Jim McCoy, Larry Ludwicki Visitors: Thank you our visitors, your help was very appreciated! Thank you to Nicole and Chris from the University of Windsor, Margaret and Paul coming from Alberta and Ross and Josh from Bird Studies Canada for their visit. Weather: An absolutely gorgeous day on the tower for weather! Started out cooler with strong winds from the North and North-East, switching to the East later in the afternoon. The sun warmed us just enough with nothing but clear blue skies for most of the day. Raptor Observations: We experienced a really slow morning, only counting a few Sharp-shinned Hawks, which was surprising considering the Northern winds. In the afternoon, when the Turkey Vultures started to fly, that's when the action began! Of course the clear blue skies meant the raptors were flying very high, forcing our counters to often lie on the backs on the benches to count all the Turkey Vulture kettles above our heads. In total we counted 2,713 Turkey Vultures, with 15 Red-shouldered Hawks and 28 Red-tailed Hawks mixed in the kettles. Overall, a very good day! Non-raptor Observations: Once again, the Jays stole the show however, we only counted 18,360 Blue Jays! The usual species were coming in high numbers, like Starlings, Cedar Waxwings, Goldfinches and Red-winged Blackbirds. We are still getting many species of ducks, the newer ones include Ruddy Ducks, Ring-necked Ducks and Lesser Scaup. Also new additions to the marsh are Bonaparte's Gulls, who came in big numbers (150) and two Rusty Blackbirds. Blue Jays: 18,630 European Starling: 3,200 Cedar Waxwing: 44 American Goldfinch: 73 Red-winged Blackbirds: 120 American Coot: 222 Killdeer: 24 Yellow-rumped Warblers: 7 Monarch Butterfly: 26 https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60488775 Predictions: Tomorrow we are expecting another lovely day, with a mix of sun and cloud, hopefully more cloud than today, as well as winds from the East. We are hoping for more (and lower) Turkey Vultures, with buteos mixed in those kettles. ======================================================================== 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