Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 23, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 639 44283 45141 Osprey 0 10 35 Bald Eagle 6 84 176 Northern Harrier 1 159 401 Sharp-shinned Hawk 107 2335 4726 Cooper's Hawk 3 148 210 Northern Goshawk 1 5 5 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 62 62 Broad-winged Hawk 0 863 25773 Red-tailed Hawk 5 392 536 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 3 3 American Kestrel 21 472 1693 Merlin 2 23 104 Peregrine Falcon 0 25 46 Unknown Accipiter 0 3 5 Unknown Buteo 0 8 9 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 4 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 787 48875 78930 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Dan Loncke, Elizabeth Kent, Hugh Kent, Kit McCann Visitors: Thank you to Dan Loncke and Kit McCann for their company and their help spotting raptors in the morning! Weather: Another windy day on the tower, with winds blowing from the South-West at over 30km/h all day, until calming down to 20 km/h in the last hour. We had a clear sky most of the day and enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Raptor Observations: A surprisingly busy day with a lot of variety given all the wind. Most raptors were having a hard time flying against the wind, but that did not stop them. Sharp-shinned Hawks (107) and American Kestrels (21) flew very low over the marsh, presumably to avoid the wind. A few Turkey Vultures flew (639), with some Bald Eagles (6), and Red-tailed Hawks (5). Our highlights included 2 very low Red-shouldered Hawks and a low flying Northern Goshawk! Overall, a successful day! Non-raptor Observations: The marsh is still very busy with many duck species, the most abundant ones at the moment are Ring-necked Ducks (725) and Gadwalls (457). We counted 106 Chimney Swifts flying over the tower, being bounced around by the wind. In the last hour, when the wind calmed down, a few songbirds came for a visit in the bushes by the tower, including Ruby and Golden-Crowned Kinglets, Yellow-rumped Warblers and to our delight a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher! Check out our full e-bird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S60875491 Predictions: Tomorrow we are expecting winds to finally shift to the North-West in the afternoon around 12! They are expected to stay North until Friday evening, this should bring us more raptors, hopefully more buteos! Tomorrow, we are expecting a nice day, which should bring us a good variety of species. ======================================================================== 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