Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 06, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 553 2117 5117 Osprey 0 1 42 Bald Eagle 2 9 133 Northern Harrier 2 34 406 Sharp-shinned Hawk 92 333 5536 Cooper's Hawk 2 22 113 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 13 56598 Red-tailed Hawk 1 8 183 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 137 235 1430 Merlin 4 6 101 Peregrine Falcon 5 11 49 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: 798 2789 69708 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:30:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Liz Kent, Noel Herdman Visitors: Thanks to Noel for assisting in observing and recording. The morning was quiet until a home schooling group joined us on the Tower showing a great interest in their natural surroundings. It was great to see Deane from Owen Sound again and to meet Melissa and Kevin, Mairie and Steve from Oakville and Jan from Lambton. All took a great interest in the Hawk Watch and the bird life on the Marsh. Weather: A blustery day today with a moderate to strong wind from the south west. A sunny day with slight cloud cover throughout. The temperature remained in the high teens. Visibility was good. Raptor Observations: A day suited for American Kestrels (137) with them obviously enjoying flying west into the blustery wind. Turkey Vultures (553) took two routes; one to the north and the other along the shore. Sharp-shinned Hawks (92) were pipped by the Kestrels with all the other species' numbers not reaching ten each. Peregrines had a good day with five passing by. Non-raptor Observations: Blue Jay (11,760) numbers were up today having been supressed by the weather yesterday. Duck and waterbird numbers are holding up with American Coot (140) increasing seen as black lines in the marsh vegetation as they play follow the leader. Warblers are still present but decreasing, the nice male Black-throated Blue Warbler showing up again. Monarch Butterflies (16) are still about but were getting blown east by the wind. The list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S151575723 Predictions: The forecast shows a moderate wind from the west with a slight northerly aspect, likely to be cloudier than today with temperatures lower at around 13c. The northerly aspect is encouraging, so hopefully we will see more raptors migrating, probably of a similar mix to today. A few more Buteos would be good, but you can't wish for everything. ======================================================================== 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