Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 08, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1507 18382 19240 Osprey 0 4 29 Bald Eagle 0 21 113 Northern Harrier 9 88 330 Sharp-shinned Hawk 96 1482 3873 Cooper's Hawk 13 63 125 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 5 27 27 Broad-winged Hawk 6 861 25771 Red-tailed Hawk 13 116 260 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 1 1 American Kestrel 10 374 1595 Merlin 1 12 93 Peregrine Falcon 0 12 33 Unknown Accipiter 0 3 5 Unknown Buteo 0 4 5 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 4 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 1660 21451 51506 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, Rick Brown Visitors: Thank you to Anne and Ron Simpson from Virginia, Jim McCoy, Rick Brown and Neil for their help today Weather: Our day started with a cool morning and northern winds and a very blue sky. By the afternoon, the winds had changed directions to the South and almost completely stopped blowing as the day warmed. Raptor Observations: Today was all about the Turkey Vultures, forming kettles very far North of the tower. By the end of the day we had counted over 1,500 Turkey Vultures! We are noticing more hawks flying past us, notably Red-shouldered Hawks, Cooper's Hawks and the last few Broad-winged Hawks of the season. As usual Sharp-shinned Hawks made their appearance as well as a few Kestrels. Non-raptor Observations: The sky was full today! Blue Jays started strong ans stayed strong all day and we ended the day with... 55,020 Blue Jays! Big round of applause to Liz Kent and her mighty clicker for counting the majority of them! We also counted many Red-winged Blackbirds, Starlings, Cedar Waxwings and Goldfinches. Duck diversity has increased with new species such as Lesser Scaup, Redhead Ducks, Ring-necked Ducks and Ruddy Ducks. Other highlights included 46 Chimney Swifts and 17 Black-bellied Plovers. Red-winged Blackbirds: 844 Starlings: 1,900 Cedar Waxwing: 179 American Goldfinch: 324 Yellow-rumped Warbler: 18 Monarch butterfly: 26 https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60464633 Predictions: Tomorrow we are expecting a beautiful day with some North-East winds in the morning. After that, the winds will shift to the East and South-East. Hopefully, the Turkey Vultures will venture closer to tower and we'll keep seeing Red-tail and Red-shouldered Hawks coming towards us. ======================================================================== 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