Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 22, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 30 41275 43379 Osprey 0 4 9 Bald Eagle 0 13 46 Northern Harrier 16 287 497 Sharp-shinned Hawk 8 3655 7604 Cooper's Hawk 0 158 230 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 4 196 197 Broad-winged Hawk 0 194 45367 Red-tailed Hawk 4 850 1034 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 0 2 2 American Kestrel 0 711 1923 Merlin 0 48 151 Peregrine Falcon 0 49 105 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 62 47445 100550 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 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: An interesting day for weather today. Rain greeted us in the morning, thankfully the bulk of it had fallen during the night and was tapering off as the count started. The sky remained overcast and the wind blew from the North-East most of the day. In the afternoon, clouds were still thick but you could feel a warmth in the air as the sun tried so hard to break through. Finally, in the last hour the clouds opened up to reveal a beautiful blue sky. Yet the visibility dropped as the area was suddenly surrounded by a thick white fog/haze, preventing us from seeing even the American side of the lake. Raptor Observations: Quite a tedious day on the tower with 62 birds total. This final total was saved by 30 Turkey Vultures that lazily migrated across the marsh. A few Sharp-shinned Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, and Red-shouldered Hawks came across as well. Keeping the day interesting were the 16 Northern Harriers that floated gently past the tower. Non-raptor Observations: Pretty typical day for non-raptors; with a flurry of Yellow-rumped Warbler, Kinglets, and Sparrow circling the tower. A few more finches flew across, this time accompanied by Robins and a single Eastern Bluebird. We were happy to see 140 Rusty Blackbird often travelling with Red-winged Blackbirds. Ducks a plenty on the marsh, with Northern Pintails gaining in numbers. Our highlight was seeing a Great Blue Heron devour huge goldfish in a single gulp! I reckon he'll be full for a while! Full ebird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S75233720 Predictions: Tomorrow could go either way. Southern winds are not our favourite, but with a bit more sun in the sky, more birds may decide to move before the afternoon thunderstorm hits. Hopefully we will see similar numbers of raptors, especially Northern Harriers as today. ======================================================================== 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