Holiday Beach Migration Observatory Essex County, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 26, 2003 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 0 55 55 Osprey 0 53 53 Bald Eagle 1 42 42 Northern Harrier 6 165 165 Sharp-shinned Hawk 46 1989 1989 Cooper's Hawk 3 61 61 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 2 2 Broad-winged Hawk 3 1461 1461 Red-tailed Hawk 2 99 99 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 21 602 602 Merlin 0 24 24 Peregrine Falcon 0 10 10 Unknown 1 6 6 Total: 83 4569 4569 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours Official Counter: Bob Pettit Observers: Chuck Gossel, Esther Gossel, Sylvia Telasco, Wayne Telasco Visitors: Many helped with sighting various species and keeping the atmosphere a pleasent one on such a cloudy-wrong wind day. Thanks! Several school groups visited the tower and surrounding area with help and assistance from ERCA staff. Weather: Winds began as variable from ESE to WSW and settled on South. Speed topped 5 mph with gusts to 7 mph but were mostly below 3 mph. Tempature was somewhat steady 17-23 Celsius. Cloud cover 50%-90%. Visibility 16 KM. Observations: Most birds were between the shore and 300 yards north of tower. Few were on the north horizon. Overhead raptors were all seen with the unaided even if they were high. Most were low sightings. Blue Jays were found moving in a broad front from the shore to the north horizon and from ground/tree level to 100-200 feet to really high (seen only with binoculars due overhead. 37,000 Blue Jays sighted. They were still moving when the count ended at 2 PM EST. A single immature Purple Gallinule was sighted and viewed many visitors on several occasions feeding in the Arrowhead plant section of the aquatic area just northwest of the tower. This section is 25 feet from the shoreline. Sora and Virginia Rail were still heard calling in the same local area. Northern Flickers are beginning to pass through the area. A single Catbird was calling on two occasions for an extende time east and southwest of the tower. Predictions: Some isolated rain. Come and join us for the last day of our successful 'Festival 2003' season. A hawk ID workshop with slides and handout will be given in the Education Center at 1:30pm local time. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Bob Pettit (redknot@earthlink.net) Holiday Beach Migration Observatory information may be found at: http://hbmo.org/ reports@hawkcount.org Visit http://www.ofo.ca/ontbirdsguide.htm for information on leaving and joining the list. As well as general information and content guidelines.