Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 22, 2010 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 940 30327 31407 Osprey 0 24 132 Bald Eagle 2 46 143 Northern Harrier 13 235 572 Sharp-shinned Hawk 28 3421 9036 Cooper's Hawk 12 285 385 Northern Goshawk 0 4 4 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 182 183 Broad-winged Hawk 0 651 16133 Red-tailed Hawk 30 721 909 Rough-legged Hawk 0 3 3 Golden Eagle 3 5 5 American Kestrel 0 335 1436 Merlin 1 26 99 Peregrine Falcon 1 21 46 Unknown Accipiter 0 1 2 Unknown Buteo 0 9 12 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 2 2 Mississippi Kite 0 0 1 Total: 1030 36298 60510 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 10 hours Official Counter: Jim Pawlicki Observers: Donna Bedard, Jim McCoy, Larry Ludwicki, Shane Butnari Visitors: Jim McCoy, Larry Ludwicki, Shane Butnari, Donna Bedard from Mississauga, and Dwayne Murphy. Weather: Sunny and cool in the morning and then warming up nicely in the afternoon with a high of 15C. Winds started off light WNW before picking up 8-10 km/hr out of the SSW. Raptor Observations: A decent movement of raptors, but another off and on day with slow periods and distant birds. Turkey Vultures and Red-tails continued to move out over the treeline to the NE, while a few Sharp-shins and Cooper's Hawks passed closer to the tower. Three Golden Eagles (sub-a...@11:25 and 12:09, j...@4:32 DST) were the highlights with all passing out over the marsh to the N. The count's only Merlin and Peregrine (juv.) came through during the last hour with the latter being escorted out by (and spotted thanks to) an evading group of Starlings. Non-raptor Observations: Chickadees continue to be in almost every tree in the park with 698+ tallied passing the tower thanks to the counting efforts of Larry Ludwicki. The non-raptor highlight came late in the day when (yet again!) an evading group of Starlings started "swarming up" over the N treeline, but instead of a raptor, they were swarming a very erratically-flying (and apparently confused) Cattle Egret that was evidently trying to get itself away from the Starlings. After finally breaking away, it flew in over the marsh and landed out on the Eagle stumps amongst a group of Ring-billed Gulls. It mostly stood around and preened, but did walk around on the stumps looking for insects, etc. Larry Ludwicki and I left the bird as it was still perched on the stumps at 6:15 DST. Also the Eastern Towhee continues at the seed spread, while Dwayne Murphy took a walk around the tower in the afternoon and turned up about a half-dozen (and a good photos) of Winter Wrens. Predictions: Partly cloudy with a 30% chance of showers in the afternoon. Wind SW 20 km/hr with a high 19C. Likely more Vultures on the move, but not many other raptors expected to be moving in the SW winds. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jim Pawlicki ([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/
