Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 08, 2016 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 0 10 10 Osprey 0 23 23 Bald Eagle 0 16 16 Northern Harrier 2 105 105 Sharp-shinned Hawk 22 281 281 Cooper's Hawk 1 15 15 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 225 225 Red-tailed Hawk 0 57 57 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 6 142 142 Merlin 13 16 16 Peregrine Falcon 2 3 3 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 46 894 894 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Sean Jenniskens Observers: Bob Hall-Brooks, Dan Loncke, Larry Ludwicki Visitors: One visiting birder today from Ottawa was able to see a Merlin and one of the Peregrine Falcons! Weather: Today was nice and cool compared to the last few days, with the sun behind clouds and a nice breeze for the majority of the day. There were a few periods of light-moderate rain throughout the day. Raptor Observations: Today was the day of falcons! Two Peregrine Falcons were observed, as well as 13 Merlins! There were a few Sharp-shinned Hawks moving as well. After counting was over later in the afternoon, we were setting up for Holiday Beaches Hawk Festival, when a Peregrine Falcon made about 4-5 dives at the fake Owl on the top of the tower, what a sight! Non-raptor Observations: As expected, migration was slow due to weather, for everything other than swallows at least! 138 Purple Martins were observed flying West over the tower, as well as 550 other individual swallows! First thing in the morning there were several large blackbird flocks flying East way off over the marsh, 6000 birds were estimated, counting the flocks by 50s. The full days eBird checklist for all non-migrating-raptors can be found here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31488430q 14 Black Saddlebags, 3 Green Darners, and 2 Monarch butterflies were observed migrating later in the day. Predictions: Winds are supposed to start from the NW in the morning and switch to the S by the afternoon. A high of about 27C and mostly sunny should make another hot day. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Sean Jenniskens (seanjenniskens@hotmail.com) Holiday Beach Conservation Area information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/