Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 14, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 376 25489 27593 Osprey 0 2 7 Bald Eagle 0 8 41 Northern Harrier 11 220 430 Sharp-shinned Hawk 48 2991 6940 Cooper's Hawk 2 106 178 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 60 61 Broad-winged Hawk 0 193 45366 Red-tailed Hawk 14 303 487 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 1 678 1890 Merlin 1 44 147 Peregrine Falcon 1 38 94 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 456 30133 83238 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, Noel Herdman 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: The day felt much cooler today, mostly due to the extensive cloud cover and lack of sun, even if the ambient temperatures stayed around 15 degrees Celsius. Winds blew from the South-West most of the day, and did not bring us many raptors. The only good thing about Southern winds is that we are sheltered from them on the tower, so we are sure to stay slightly warmer. Raptor Observations: Quite the slow day with only 456 raptors in total, the bulk of which were 250 Turkey Vultures all coming in a frenzy around 2 o'clock. Turkey Vultures often meander and take their time crossing, but this batch was on a mission and crossed the marsh at record speeds! Our other raptors came slowly and very high throughout the day; 48 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 11 Northern Harriers, 2 Red-shouldered Hawks, and 14 Red-tailed Hawks. Finally, 3 falcons zipped past the tower one for each species, an Amcerican Kestrel, a Merlin, and our last bird a Peregrine Falcon. Non-raptor Observations: Today we tallied up 46,260 Blue Jays, which puts our season total at 999,351 individuals so far! Now, if everything goes well tomorrow (and the weather cooperates), we will hit 1 million Blue Jays!! *touch wood*. Finches were on the move today as House Finch, Purple Finch, Pine Siskin and American Goldfinch were all counted. Tree Swallows and Northern Rough-winged Swallows were spotted feeding over the marsh and in the air above the tower in the afternoon. In the morning, we heard two Sandhill Cranes in the far distances of the marsh, and we also heard a Common Loon calling from the lake. Ring-necked Ducks, Gadwalls, and American Coots currently rule the marsh with really numbers for each species. Looking forwards to seeing more variety coming in soon. Full ebird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S74825162 Predictions: Tomorrow is looking like a wet and probably slow day for raptors with winds from the South-West. Rain is expected to fall on and off throughout the day but never in heavy amounts. Often in drizzles raptors like Northern Harriers will still fly across. Hopefully they will come and bring a few more friends along. Never thought I'd say this; but I hope for a good number of Blue Jays to push us over the million. Fingers crossed! ======================================================================== 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: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=100