Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 06, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 648 4956 6853 Osprey 0 1 22 Bald Eagle 0 41 168 Northern Harrier 1 85 608 Sharp-shinned Hawk 30 571 5942 Cooper's Hawk 7 33 123 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 4 5 Broad-winged Hawk 0 67 4325 Red-tailed Hawk 6 85 457 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 1 1 American Kestrel 0 170 1542 Merlin 2 3 60 Peregrine Falcon 6 11 52 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 0 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 700 6028 20160 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Liz Kent, Noel Herdman, Paul Gosselin Visitors: Thanks to Paul, Noel and Liz for keeping me company on the Tower, helping with clicker duty! It was good to see Daniel again staying for a good proportion of the day. Lou and Toni also paid us a visit. Weather: A moderate wind from the south switched west early afternoon and gradually gained in strength. It was cloudy to start with and cleared somewhat in the afternoon. The temperature started at a comfortable 20c and increased to 24c by mid day. The pressure fell 8 points during the day and the visibility remained good all day. Raptor Observations: Turkey Vultures (648) dominated the day starting close to the shore venturing back and forth past the Tower testing the wind, until eventually deciding to move west. After that they mostly appeared over the trees to the north east, relatively low all day. The highlight was six Peregrine Falcons passing close to the Tower and heading west from mid morning to mid afternoon. Sharp-shinned Hawks were the runners up but with a relatively low count of thirty. Non-raptor Observations: Blue Jays seem to be slowing down with a count of 12,050. Tree Swallows (888) were hawking over and above the marsh in large numbers. Otherwise a slow day with songbirds being suppressed by the strong wind. The list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S197830843 Predictions: A cooler day under clear skies with moderate wind from the north west is forecast. Hopefully this will bring more raptors including buteos, although they are likely to be passing higher under the clear skies. ======================================================================== 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: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=100