After having such a successful venture to this area on Nov 10, Ross Snider and I were looking forward to trying to replicate that success with another visit, following a similar route [Grand Bend north to Bayfield]. We were not disappointed, with some exceptional numbers of select migrants, especially Rough-legged Hawk, Golden Eagle and Sandhill Crane. We recorded 77 migrant Rough-legged Hawks, between Grand Bend and Bayfield, primarily along the Hwy 21 corridor, with birds splitting the Hwy at various points. Some birds moved closely along the lakeshore while a second stream moved inland, variable distances, mostly following the wooded features. This, combined with our previous visit total of 146, gave us 223 migrant Rough-legged Hawks for two visits, a figure that we both found mind-blowing. Again, seeing the paucity of records from Lake Erie watch sites suggests an alternate migration route that effectively by-passes the Erie shore, and also suggests these birds cross over, westward, at some point north of Erie Metro Park, perhaps Sarnia? [neither of us would presume to be breaking new ground with these observations but we would be very keen to hear from other birders with local experience, as to whether these sorts of observations are known to them, and if this is a regular occurrence.] Other raptors of note included a marvellous 26 Golden Eagles, 5 Bald Eagles, 5 Northern Goshawk, 9 Red-shouldered Hawks, 135 Red-tailed Hawks [both seriously undercounted due to bird-eating blue skies!] , 10 Cooper's Hawk and 19 Sharp-shins. With several visits to this stretch under our belts, this area of the Huron shoreline has proven to be excellent for raptors, especially on days of E to NE winds. In fact, the numbers and variety seem to rival [or exceed] the Erie watch sites on days of acceptable conditions. Non raptors most noteworthy would have to have been Sandhill Crane. Both of us had speculated that this area should yield good numbers of this species in migration and that has proven to be the case. Today, we tallied 837 birds, in four flocks. One particularly amazing flock held over 450 birds, and created quite a memory as they passed directly overhead, calling and swirling about. In some cases these flocks appeared to have just recently taken flight, as they were fairly low and easy to see. All flocks stuck close to the shoreline, making a more direct passage than the migrant raptors encountered. Again, this area had some excellent numbers of irruptives. We counted 307 Bohemian Waxwings, in several flocks of 100+ birds, mostly close to Hwy 21, with some birds perching briefly along the Highway. The great majority of these birds appeared to be actively migrating, moving directly and purposefully south. A fair passage of Common Redpoll resulted in a total of 385, most of these were in small flocks of less than 30 birds. 7 Pine Grosbeaks were maybe fewer than expected, although our travels kept us out of some of the better landbird sites in the area. As mentioned, we would enjoy hearing from other birders with previous migration experience along this stretch of Huron shoreline. For both of us, our visits here have proven very eye-opening and educational, especially in helping to understand the migration dynamic of this [seemingly] under-birded area. Any subsequent information would be greatly appreciated. James Holdsworth and Ross Snider.
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