Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 20, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 255 1528 1528 Osprey 0 2 2 Bald Eagle 0 27 27 Northern Harrier 5 154 154 Sharp-shinned Hawk 93 2328 2328 Cooper's Hawk 2 48 48 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 2 45167 45167 Red-tailed Hawk 7 183 183 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 1 941 941 Merlin 1 52 52 Peregrine Falcon 0 9 9 Unknown Accipiter 0 1 1 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 1 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Total: 366 50442 50442 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Elizabeth Kent Visitors: We appreciate all the interest in the tower and the hawk watch but remind everyone that the tower remains closed to members of the public and has a three-person limit reserved for the Hawk Counters. Thank you to all who are respecting these precautions. Be safe everyone! Weather: A clear blue sky all day, wind started in the NE but soon turned E around mid morning. Cool to start with but soon warmed up to a pleasant 19c. Raptor Observations: The raptors took Sunday off! We observed high level migration of about 250 Turkey Vultures, with about 90 Sharp-shins passing through the day. Broad-wing Hawks dried up with a couple of low level stragglers in the morning. One sat in a nearby tree for half an hour before heading off. Only 2 American Kestrels was disappointing, hopefully they will return in good numbers soon. Non-raptor Observations: Today was another Blue Jay day with over 18,000 passing in large groups. They were very skittish, often diving into the trees, which is surprising given the lack of raptors! Warbler numbers have reduced with only 5 species present. A juvenile Black-crowned Night-heron sat out in the open for most of the day on the edge of the marsh. Chimney Swifts have returned with 19 seen. Tree Swallow and Red-winged Blackbird numbers are increasing over the marsh. Full eBird list can be found at https://ebird.org/checklist/S73851024 Predictions: Tomorrow is likely to be a similar day to today, clear skies with wind from the SE and a temperature of 20c. We hope to see improved numbers of Sharp-shinned Hawks, Northern Harriers and American Kestrels. We expect that the Turkey Vulture migration will continue to build. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Hugh Kent (Hughnkent@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