Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 24, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 425 1327 1327 Osprey 0 32 32 Bald Eagle 7 110 110 Northern Harrier 18 314 314 Sharp-shinned Hawk 298 4699 4699 Cooper's Hawk 7 76 76 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 96 56313 56313 Red-tailed Hawk 22 147 147 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 75 917 917 Merlin 4 88 88 Peregrine Falcon 5 25 25 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 Total: 957 64048 64048 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Aldo Bertucci, Juliette Herdman, Liz Kent, Noel Herdman, Paul Gosselin Visitors: Big thanks to Aldo, Juliette, Noel, Neil, Paul, Mike and David and Jane for helping observe and record. Not easy today with the blue sky. It was good to see again Chandra and Ramech, Nelsy, Connor and Michelle, Ralph and MJ. It was good to meet Lukas from Ohio, Laura from Grand Rapids and Neil and Evelyn from Toronto. Glad that you were all able to experience a bit of the wonder of hawk migration. Weather: A moderate wind from the north greeted us first thing and kept going until late afternoon when it changed to the south. The temperature started mid teens and rose gradually to mid twenties by late afternoon. Most of the day had minimal cloud cover. Visibility was again good. Raptor Observations: Turkey Vultures (425) held the day, followed by a good number of Sharp-shinned Hawks (298) which kept coming most of the day. Broad-winged Hawks (96) flew alongside, if higher than the Turkey Vultures. American Kestrels (75) produced a higher number today, let's hope that continues. Red-tailed Hawks (22) also increased their number. As ever it was the Peregrines (5) that provided the entertainment with fine acrobatics with one seen reducing the significant number of migrating Blue Jays by one. Non-raptor Observations: Blue Jay numbers broke 10k, with 10,740 passing the tower in large flocks. Perhaps we should reduce the number by one but that hapless individual had passed the tower. A quiet day again for songbirds around the Tower which unfortunately is becoming a bit of a pattern, but we did have a significant number of American Goldfinches (974) pass by today. Waterbird numbers are being pretty consistent at the moment, it was nice to see two Sandhill Cranes over the Marsh, very early on. The list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S150689328 Predictions: Tomorrow's forecast is for a light to moderate wind from the north east with cloudy skies. A little bit cooler than today. There is a slight chance of light rain in the afternoon. We will probably see a continuation of the Turkey Vulture build up together with more Sharp-shins and Kestrels. Broad wing migration is probably coming to its end. ======================================================================== 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