Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 14, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 8998 35159 37056 Osprey 0 1 22 Bald Eagle 26 113 240 Northern Harrier 25 165 688 Sharp-shinned Hawk 352 1517 6888 Cooper's Hawk 5 66 156 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 84 106 107 Broad-winged Hawk 0 72 4330 Red-tailed Hawk 253 523 895 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 6 11 11 American Kestrel 26 286 1658 Merlin 1 13 70 Peregrine Falcon 11 29 70 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: 9787 38061 52193 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:45:00 Total observation time: 9.75 hours Official Counter: Kiah Jasper Observers: Alessandra Kite, Hugh Kent, Jeremy Bensette, Jeremy Hatt, John Winebrenner, Lisa Silvey, Liz Kent, Mike Jaber, Noel Herdman, Paul Gosselin Visitors: Luckily we had a lot of observers to help out with the count today. Thanks to Mike, Paul, Alessandra, Hugh, Liz, Noel, Jeremy H, John, Lisa and Jeremy B for helping spot and count today. We were visited by Chad and Chris from Ohio, Mary Anne, Dave and Peter from Windsor, Annanita and Fred from London and Nicola and Keith from Lasalle. Weather: 7 Degrees C to start off, rising to 16 in the afternoon and dropping to 13 in the later afternoon. Spitting rain briefly between 08:00 and 09:00, but no precipitation after that. Northwest winds for most of the morning, switching to more northerly for the afternoon. Gorgeous mix of sun and cloud today, perfect for spotting raptors against with a nice gradient of grey and white. The barometer rose from 29.73 to 29.84. Raptor Observations: Today was a fantastic for raptors on the tower! We observed 9,787 birds, by far our highest total of the season. Turkey Vultures stole the show with 8,998 recorded during the day( our 10th highest total all time). In the afternoon we had several large streams of over 1000 vultures, all diligently clicked 1 by 1 by Paul. It was also a great day for Golden Eagles, with 6 recorded. 4 of those came in the span of 30 minutes, quite exciting for those gathered on the tower. This is a good count for so early in the season. Several other species were recorded in the highest numbers we’ve seen this season, Red-tailed Hawk (253), Red-shouldered Hawk (84) and Peregrine Falcon (11). There was also a good flight of Sharp-shinned Hawks (352) and Northern Harriers (25). Non-raptor Observations: Waterfowl were present in good numbers today, with 15 species recorded on the marsh. American White Pelicans continue in strong numbers on the marsh, with a minimum of 500 seen today. The lake was fairly active in the morning with Common Terns, Bonaparte’s Gulls and a Common Loon passing by. 1,080 Blue Jays passed the tower today, smaller numbers than we saw last week. 5 warbler species were seen from the tower today. Other highlights included; Black-bellied Plover, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 4 Sandhill Cranes and Eastern Towhee. 78 species were recorded from the tower today, for the full list click this eBird link (photos will be added tomorrow) - https://ebird.org/checklist/S198934500 Predictions: Tomorrow is predicted to be another cool, sunny day with wind from the North, so we’re hoping for another really good day of counting! ======================================================================== 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