Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 07, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 5 135 157 Osprey 0 7 7 Bald Eagle 4 48 51 Northern Harrier 5 74 93 Sharp-shinned Hawk 31 103 105 Cooper's Hawk 0 4 5 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 15 284 296 Red-tailed Hawk 4 207 247 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 17 230 238 Merlin 0 8 8 Peregrine Falcon 3 9 9 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Mississippi Kite 0 1 1 Total: 84 1110 1217 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 10 hours Official Counter: Kiah Jasper Observers: Chuck Sharbaugh, Hugh Kent, Ian Woodfield, Joan Walker, Liz Kent, Mike Jaber, Mike Malone, Nicole Shangi, Paul Gosselin, Peter Veighey Visitors: Despite the cold weather, several birders joined me on the tower for most of the day. Thanks to Chuck, Hugh Kent, Lix, Ian, Joan, Mike M, Mike J, Nicole, Paul, Alessandra and Peter for helping out with the count today. Weather: Sometimes the weather looks good the night before, but then just doesn't pan out for you. Today was one of those days. The wind was from the Northwest, which is often good for our site... But it was a bit too strong, gusting to over 35kph during our watch. The cloud cover was also much heavier than expected, averaging above 80%. That, combined with the very cold temperatures (high of 16, but felt much colder on the tower) seem to dissuade many birds from moving. Raptor Observations: We observed a total of 84 raptors today, with the bulk being Sharp-shinned Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk and American Kestrel. The flight line was very low in the morning, with birds fighting their way along the shoreline in the gusty wind. In the afternoon it spread out and was more variable (shoreline all the way to the far side of the marsh), but there was only a small trickle of birds coming along. Non-raptor Observations: Lake Erie was the most active we've seen it this season, with good numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls (130) and Common Terns (490) migrating past. Mixed in with the Common Terns were 12 Black Terns, a species we don't see very frequently here. 376 American Goldfinches were observed flying past the tower, as well as over 500 Purple Martins. 8 American White Pelicans were seen flying over the marsh during the day as well. A total of 71 species were observed from the tower today, for a full list see this eBird link https://ebird.org/checklist/S194327048 Predictions: Tomorrow the wind will be out of the West, but the temperature should be slightly higher and the sky clear. It likely won't be a massive flight day, but there could be a fair number of birds moving ======================================================================== Report submitted by Kiah Jasper (kiahbirder@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