Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 13, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 61 4330 53566 Osprey 0 0 36 Bald Eagle 3 36 229 Northern Harrier 16 200 657 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 294 5262 Cooper's Hawk 0 35 272 Northern Goshawk 0 0 6 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 213 428 Broad-winged Hawk 0 6 25779 Red-tailed Hawk 22 1142 1960 Rough-legged Hawk 2 9 9 Golden Eagle 0 11 14 American Kestrel 0 17 1727 Merlin 1 6 113 Peregrine Falcon 0 7 58 Unknown Accipiter 0 2 7 Unknown Buteo 0 11 23 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 3 7 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 108 6322 90154 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Maryse Gagné Observers: Visitors: No visitors to day, but the stairs on the tower have been plowed for whoever wants to visit! Weather: Cold start with a slow and gradual warm up throughout the day. Winds were blowing gently from the South-West all day which brought along a full cloud cover by mid-morning. Raptor Observations: A relatively slow day, until Turkey Vultures came in to increase our daily total by 61 birds. Red-tail Hawks were also flying far North of the marsh. Only a few Sharp-shinned Hawks and a Red-shouldered Hawk made and appearance. Of the 16 Northern Harriers that flew by, 9 were Grey Ghosts males, always a pleasure to see them fly. Lastly, the rarities of the day were a Merlin zipping across the marsh and two light morph Rough-legged Hawks. Non-raptor Observations: Today was all about the gulls! Ring-billed and Bonaparte's Gulls invaded the marsh and clouds of hundreds of white birds could be seen feeding over the marsh. Not many passerines migrating, but I was entertained by three American Pipits jumping about on the frozen pond by the tower. A few unexpected species included a Tree Swallow, a Great Egret and an Eastern Phoebe. Hooded Merganser and Bufflehead abundance is increasing on the marsh, as other species are pushed further out to open patches of water. Check out the full ebird list here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61429223 Predictions: Tomorrow's winds will be South-Western, but the temperature is supposed to rise and reach 0 degrees Celsius by mid-afternoon with some sunshine. Still waiting on a few more Golden Eagles to come through, and always more Harriers. ======================================================================== 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