Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 07, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 593 2710 5710 Osprey 1 2 43 Bald Eagle 3 12 136 Northern Harrier 12 46 418 Sharp-shinned Hawk 188 521 5724 Cooper's Hawk 11 33 124 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 2 15 56600 Red-tailed Hawk 3 11 186 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 261 496 1691 Merlin 2 8 103 Peregrine Falcon 4 15 53 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: 1080 3869 70788 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Chip Ogglesby, Juliette Herdman, Liz Kent, Noel Herdman Visitors: Big thanks to Chip, Deane and Noel and Juliette for their help in observing and recording today. It was good to meet Andrew and Amy and their dog, Obie and Corinna. Nice to see again Larry, Nicole and Keith and Dwayne and family. You are all welcome on the Tower anytime. Weather: A blustery day with moderate and at times strong wind from slightly north of west. Started colder than recently with temperatures rising slightly to low teens. Cloud cover was variable and visibility was good. There was a short rain shower around midday. Raptor Observations: What a great day of Hawk watching. Pretty much an even stream of eleven species for most of the day, with enough eyes on the Tower to make observation easy. Turkey Vultures (593) again took top spot, as expected. It felt good to congratulate American Kestrels (261) as the runners-up, as numbers have been low until the last few days. Sharp-shinned Hawks (188) took the bronze, with decent showings from Northern Harriers (12) and Peregrines (4). Non-raptor Observations: I think most ducks and waterbirds were sheltering from the wind today, hiding behind the marsh vegetation, as numbers were relatively low, except for American Coot (290) seen again in a long line. A peregrine flushed a huge number of Tree Swallows (1,106) from their roost among the marsh plants. We also had flyovers from a number of shorebird species including American Golden Plover (3) and Wilson's Snipe (3). There was also a good presence of Yellow-rumped Warbler (28) today both in the trees around the Tower and flying by. The list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S151662321 Predictions: Tomorrow is forecast to be generally similar to today, with slightly more cloud. Wind will remain moderate from the west with a slight northerly aspect. Hopefully the flight will also be similar to today, continuing with a good movement of Kestrels. ======================================================================== 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