Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 15, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1326 28671 29529 Osprey 0 10 35 Bald Eagle 1 46 138 Northern Harrier 5 107 349 Sharp-shinned Hawk 27 1763 4154 Cooper's Hawk 7 94 156 Northern Goshawk 0 2 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 47 47 Broad-winged Hawk 0 863 25773 Red-tailed Hawk 9 188 332 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 1 1 American Kestrel 6 418 1639 Merlin 1 16 97 Peregrine Falcon 1 20 41 Unknown Accipiter 0 3 5 Unknown Buteo 0 7 8 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 4 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 1383 32256 62311 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Visitors: Thank you to our visitors, Jim McCoy, John Barnes, Noel and Juliette. Also thank you to Tim and Chip who brought us a Red-tail Hawk and a Merlin to be released on top of the tower. Also big thank you to Gary and Jeremy who visited all the way from Southern California. Weather: A gorgeous fall day on the tower today. The morning was chillier but it warmed up nicely to 17degC with very slight winds from the South-East most of the day. Raptor Observations: We counted a good variety of raptors today. Turkey Vultures are still coming in strong with 1,326 individuals today, mostly travelling north of us. We also counted 27 Sharp-shinned Hawks, a few Northern Harriers (5) including 2 gray ghost males. Additionally, we counted all three falcon species with a Peregrine Falcon coming in at the last minute of the count day! Lastly, we are still missing some buteos, as we only counted 9 Red-tailed Hawks. Hopefully, we'll get some Northern winds soon, which should bring us more buteos. Non-raptor Observations: Also a lot variety with non-raptor species! Today's highlights included a White-crowned Sparrow, a Cape May Warbler and Golden-crowned Kinglets. We were lucky to have a nice fall of warbler in the last half hour of the day. Duck numbers have increased drastically over the marsh! Gadwalls and Widgeons, 416 and 217 respectively, were almost as plentiful as Mallards (650). We also counted 21 Northern Shovelers, 48 Northern Pintails, 158 Ring-necked ducks and 61 Lesser Scaup. Only 3,240 Blue Jays, but we counted 335 Tree Swallows, 2,315 Starlings, 100 American Goldfinch, 417 Red-winged Blackbirds and 19 Yellow-rumped warblers. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60653558 Predictions: Tonight we are expecting rain which should stop before the morning, however we will potentially experience a bit of rain the afternoon. The winds are supposed to blow from the West most of the day, hopefully some buteos will come along anyways! ======================================================================== 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