Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 26, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 61 367 367 Osprey 2 24 24 Bald Eagle 6 91 91 Northern Harrier 21 168 168 Sharp-shinned Hawk 312 2071 2071 Cooper's Hawk 8 53 53 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 10 24812 24812 Red-tailed Hawk 5 136 136 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 273 1015 1015 Merlin 12 68 68 Peregrine Falcon 1 13 13 Unknown Accipiter 0 2 2 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 4 4 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Total: 711 28826 28826 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagne Observers: Dan Lumm, Elizabeth Kent, Hugh Kent, Jeremy Bensette, Jim McCoy, Larry Ludwicki Visitors: Thank you to all who came to visited us today, we really appreciated your help spotting Sharp-shinned Hawks and Kestrels out of the sky. Thank you to Mary and Ron from Oklahoma, Linda and Margo and their family from Alberta, Sue and Cliff from Peterborough, Shawn Brown from Ridgeway, the Resas family from Edmonton and the grade 11 biology class from the Maranatha Christian Academy in Windsor who came by to practice their bird ID skills. Also thank you to Dan, Larry, Jim, Noel and Juliette and Jeremy. Lastly, thanks to Chris and Chip for bringing us an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk, a male Kestrel and a male Merlin for us to release and adopt. We wish them well on their migration! Weather: We had a very pleasant day on the tower with temperatures rising to the mid 20 degrees Celsius with good cloud cover in the morning and clear blue skies in the afternoon. The wind was blowing quite strongly from the West most of the day, switching slightly to the West-North-West for some part of the afternoon. Raptor Observations: What a good day for us with a daily total of 711 raptors! Many highlights but the best one was counting 12 Merlins! We also counted all three species of falcons; Merlins, Kestrels and one Peregrine falcon to top it off. As usual we had high numbers of Sharp-shinned Hawks (312) and American Kestrels (273). Our other highlight was 21 Northern Harriers, one of which was a beautiful male gray ghost. Non-raptor Observations: Once again, a little bit slower for non-raptor species. We are counting many ducks on the marsh, with Widgeons, Mallards, Blue-winged Teals, Gadwalls, and Pintails. In the afternoon, the Tree Swallows came out onto the marsh to feed and we ended up with a daily count of 241. Lastly, the Blue Jays are slowly starting to move, every day we are counting more, but we are still waiting for the big movements. Wood Duck: 26 Gadwall: 3 Blue-winged Teal: 5 Northern Pintail: 5 American Widgeon: 77 Mallards: 156 American Coot: 237 Blue Jay: 142 Tree Swallow: 241 American Goldfinch: 104 https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60134447 Predictions: Tomorrow, we are expecting a nice day but with mild winds coming from the South. Our day might not be as exciting as today but we are hoping for more Sharp-shinned hawks, Kestrels and maybe more Northern Harriers. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Maryse Gagne (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