Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 16, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 247 4685 53921 Osprey 0 0 36 Bald Eagle 0 38 231 Northern Harrier 32 300 757 Sharp-shinned Hawk 45 357 5325 Cooper's Hawk 18 57 294 Northern Goshawk 0 0 6 Red-shouldered Hawk 299 526 741 Broad-winged Hawk 0 6 25779 Red-tailed Hawk 2414 3633 4451 Rough-legged Hawk 6 20 20 Golden Eagle 3 16 19 American Kestrel 4 21 1731 Merlin 1 10 117 Peregrine Falcon 0 7 58 Unknown Accipiter 0 2 7 Unknown Buteo 0 12 24 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 3 7 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 3069 9693 93525 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:30:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 9.5 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Dave Martin, Jeremy Bensette, Kory Renaud, Linda Wladarski, Paul Pratt Visitors: Today would not have been possible without the help of many, and many did flock to the tower! Big thanks to Paul Pratt and his birding group who picked the best day to come out! Additional thanks to Kory Renaud, Dave Martin and Linda Wladarski, John Barnes, Leon Barlows, Jim McCoy, Neil, Noel Herdman, and Jeremy Bensette. Weather: Well the North-West winds definitely played in our favour today! Winds blew quite steadily all day and we had a great mix of sun and cloud for most of the day, apart from a few hours of full cloud cover giving us poor lighting. Raptor Observations: Many words could be used to describe today; and busy doesn't quite cut it, so I'll settle for incredible. Today was incredible, as we had our biggest migration of Red-tailed Hawk this year, with a daily total of 2,414 Red-tailed Hawks. This would put today in third place for most Red-tails ever recorded in one day at HBMO! Coming in second place were the Red-shouldered Hawks with 299 individuals and Turkey Vultures at 247. Northern Harriers, Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks also had a good showing, and a few Kestrels and a Merlin made an appearance. Six Rough-legged Hawks (light morphs) and three Golden Eagles also graced us with their presence. What an insanely incredible day!! Lastly, once again approximately 14 Bald Eagles could be seen hanging out on the ice for most of the day. Non-raptor Observations: A huge movement of American Crows started the day, and was continuous until the end of the day, where we had counted approximately 15,000 Crows. Major highlights came from a few flocks of Sandhill Cranes (daily total of 130) flew over the tower, Horned Grebes and Surf Scoters were spotted on the lake. A few thousand ducks out on the marsh, all put up by Eagles throughout the day. More passerines migrated; Bluebirds, Red-winged Blackbirds, Rusty Blackbirds, Robins, Goldfinches, Horned Larks, and Pitpits. Check out the full eBird list here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61505289 Predictions: Not sure if anything will beat today, but the raptors sure can try! However, winds are expected to blow from the East and switch over to the South in the afternoon with a clear blue sky. ======================================================================== 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