Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 28, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1 2968 70156 Osprey 0 1 47 Bald Eagle 2 127 386 Northern Harrier 1 111 858 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 238 9024 Cooper's Hawk 1 80 390 American Goshawk 0 6 10 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 404 778 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 56725 Red-tailed Hawk 3 1937 3516 Rough-legged Hawk 0 17 21 Golden Eagle 0 95 107 American Kestrel 0 7 2615 Merlin 0 14 141 Peregrine Falcon 0 12 100 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Raptor 0 1 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Total: 8 6021 144878 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Liz Kent, Mike Jaber Visitors: Thanks again to Mike for keeping us company and helping observe in the morning. Weather: A clear, bright but cold day, with the temperature not rising above -1c. The wind was strong, generally from the west. Raptor Observations: A quiet day with only eight raptors seen migrating. Three Red-tailed Hawks were seen to the north as was a single Turkey Vulture. A Northern Harrier passed low over the marsh and a Cooper's Hawk passed the Tower to settle, momentarily in trees on the shore to the west. Two Bald Eagles passed by with determination so seemed to be migrating, whilst eleven hung around the marsh, occasionally swooping on a great mass of duck huddled around an unfrozen area of the marsh. Non-raptor Observations: The ducks were congregated in and around three unfrozen areas of open water on the marsh, mostly Mallards (3912) with other dabbling ducks mixed in. Amazingly no Ring-necked Ducks were seen today, the thousands of the previous day seemingly departed to warmer climes or bigger areas of open water. It will be interesting to note if they return when the temperature rises. Good numbers of Tundra Swan (127) settled on the marsh, seemingly overwhelming a few resident Mute Swans. Very few small birds around today, but American Goldfinches (100) keep passing by on their way west. The list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S155393393 Predictions: Tomorrow's forecast is for strong winds from the south west with mostly cloudy skies. The temperature will rise above freezing by midday and reach a high of 2c in the afternoon. Likely we will have similar raptor numbers to today, but hoping for more, as always. ======================================================================== 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