Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 16, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1421 29559 32559 Osprey 0 4 45 Bald Eagle 0 53 177 Northern Harrier 13 259 631 Sharp-shinned Hawk 521 1972 7175 Cooper's Hawk 7 100 191 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 62 62 Broad-winged Hawk 0 126 56711 Red-tailed Hawk 0 211 386 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 28 1295 2490 Merlin 1 20 115 Peregrine Falcon 2 36 74 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: 1995 33697 100616 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Juliette Herdman, Liz Kent, Michael Arthurs, Noel Herdman Visitors: Big thanks to Juliette and Noel and Michael for staying with us throughout the day in miserable weather and doing a great job observing and recording. Thanks to Juliette and Noel for proving a welcome hot soup at lunchtime. Weather: The day was overcast with a light rain until mid afternoon when the rain stopped. The wind was generally moderate to strong from the north west. The visibility was very restricted during the rain and only cleared from mid afternoon. The temperature remained in the low teens all day. Raptor Observations: Little appeared in the first two hours. Turkey Vultures (1421) rose mid morning, flew around a bit then gave up. They started again in the late morning and flew initially along the shore then switching to the north peaking at midday. Sharp-shinned Hawks (521) started appearing mid morning and then flew past constantly until late afternoon. American Kestrels (28) appeared spasmodically throughout the day. Given the weather it was amazing that we saw any raptors at all! Non-raptor Observations: Today was a day of sparrows, with seven species, intermingled with many Yellow-rumped Warblers (30) all around the Tower. A first of the season American Tree Sparrow , White-crowned (6) and a Lincoln's were notable. Rusty Blackbirds (260) continue to grow in numbers accompanying many Red-winged Blackbirds (1250). Ducks were difficult to spot on the marsh but there were a fair few flying over including Canvasback (68) and Greater Scaup (14), which were both firsts of the season. It was nice to see and hear six Sandhill Crane flying west over the marsh. The list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S152423229 Predictions: Tomorrow is forecast to be a better day with no rain and partly cloudy. The light wind will initially be slightly north of west, switching to west around midday. Temperature will be around 10c. The mix will likely be the same but hopefully the clearer weather will tempt some Buteos to fly. ======================================================================== 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