Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 02, 2010 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 0 1828 2908 Osprey 0 6 114 Bald Eagle 0 7 104 Northern Harrier 3 31 368 Sharp-shinned Hawk 7 489 6104 Cooper's Hawk 0 18 118 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 1 Broad-winged Hawk 0 168 15650 Red-tailed Hawk 0 32 220 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 1 94 1195 Merlin 5 6 79 Peregrine Falcon 1 3 28 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 0 3 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Mississippi Kite 0 0 1 Total: 17 2682 26894 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 12:00:00 Total observation time: 5 hours Official Counter: Todd Pepper Observers: John Craft Visitors: A total of 7 - 3rd year biology students visited the tower in 2 groups with each staying an hour or more; Tim Dornan from near Canton, Ohio braved the morning even breaking out his scope; Regulars John Craft from Michigan and Richard Carr from Leamington stopped in, as did Bob Cermak from Ottawa. Weather: Rain off and on during count period. Only about half hour without any rain. Winds started out of SE but switched to N/NE around 10 am making it hard to count even the few number of raptors flying. Temperature ranged from 11.5 - 13.5C. Raptor Observations: 17 birds of 5 species with the highlight being 6 Merlin flying just below or just above tower. Two of the resident Osprey fished off and on over the marsh all morning both coming in from the west. Non-raptor Observations: It looked like it might be a good Blue Jay day despite the weather, but they stopped flying just after the first hour for a total of 199 individuals. The swallows also did not seem to mind the rain with 136 Tree Swallow, 59 Rough-wing, a dozen late Purple Martina and 4 Chimney Swifts. There was a fairly large flock of passerines that circled the tower all morning going from shrub patch to shrub patch. The mixed flock included: American Goldfinch; Ruby-crowned & Golden-crowned Kinglets; Yellow-rumped, Nashville, Blackpoll, Magnolia and Bay-breasted Warblers; White-crowned & White-throated Sparrows; Black-capped Chickadees; Juncos; Northern Cardinals; and several Northern Flickers. Carolina Wren, House Wren and Sora Rail were heard and a Belted Kingfisher flew by several times. Predictions: Predicting showers, but lower percentage than today, potential for north winds and temperature up to 13C. If the rain holds off it could be a good day. A drive of the roads outside of Holiday Beach indicated quite a number of Sharp-shinned Hawks and Kestrels in the area. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Todd Pepper ([email protected]) Holiday Beach Migration Observatory information may be found at: http://hbmo.org/ _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
