Yesterday [November 21] Ross Snider, James Holdsworth, Linda Wladarski
and I headed up to the lower Lake Huron shoreline between Grand Bend and
Bayfield on our annual late fall visit to test migration. In three
previous years we have observed large flights of Sandhill Cranes, Golden
Eagles and Rough-legged Hawks among other migrants.The more visits we
make, the more we begin to understand that the migration along the east
shore of Lake Huron can be quite different in character to that observed
along the north shore of Lake Erie. We believe that the best winds for
migration along the east side of Lake Huron are easterly winds because
any raptors moving south or southwest will inevitably drift west towards
the shoreline. On Lake Erie northerly winds are usually best. The
forecast for yesterday was east winds in the morning and southeast in
the afternoon. However, as we've discovered on previous visits, the
forecast winds are often wrong. When we arrived, the winds were east but
over the course of our survey changed to southwest, west, northwest and
back to west. As a result, migration was not as strong as was reported
at the three major hawk watches on Lake Erie - Hawk Cliff, Holiday Beach
and Erie Metropark.
Even so, in four hours we observed 48 raptors including 26 Rough-legged
Hawks, 8 Bald Eagles, 10 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 Northern
Harrier and 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks.
There were many flocks of 100s of Snow Buntings with one flock of at
least 5000 birds. Lapland Longspurs were present in some of the Snow
Bunting flocks. Small numbers of American Goldfinches, Pine Siskins and
American Crows were the only other noticeable migrants. Noticeably
absent were Golden Eagles and Sandhill Cranes. Both were observed in
good numbers on all four previous visits.
The large number of Rough-legged Hawks [26] continues to be a mystery
when compared to what is recorded at the Lake Erie hawk watches. Two
Rough-legged Hawks were recorded at each of the three sites yesterday on
what was considered to be one of the best migration days this November.
The total of 26 birds at Lake Huron in 4 hours on a not particularly
active day is astounding when compared to the season totals for the
three Lake Erie watches which operate 7 to 8 hours per day, 7 days per
week. As of November 21, the season totals are 27 at Hawk Cliff, 25 at
Erie Metro and 19 at Holiday Beach. And so, Lake Huron produced as many
Rough-legged Hawks in 4 hours on one day as the three Lake Erie watches
have over the last 6 weeks or so when this species first showed up.
Rough-legged Hawk totals for visits in previous years were 143 on
November 10, 2007, on winds that ranged from east to west to north; 77
on November 18, 2007 on northeast to northwest winds; 13 on November 11,
2009, on east winds, 37 on November 24, 2010, on northeast to east winds
and 26 on November 21, 2011. These five visits,each with relatively
large numbers of this species, show that a large migration of
Rough-legged Hawks is a regular feature of fall migration along the
lower Lake Huron shoreline. And, it is obvious that these hawks do not
make it as far as the Lake Erie shoreline. Perhaps many of them winter
in southwestern Ontario and those that don't move into Michigan between
Lake St. Clair and Sarnia, bypassing the Lake Erie shoreline.
The watches take place between Grand Bend and Bayfield. We usually start
on Hendrick Road in the south at the lakeshore to get a feel for where
the flight line is occurring. It could be along the lake shore or over a
long, narrow band of woodland parallel to the shore about 1.5 km inland
or spread out from the lakeshore to the woodlots. If there is not much
action we move north road by road towards Bayfield, sometimes at the
lakeshore and sometimes inland - that is either side of Hwy 21 which
connects Grand Bend and Bayfield. There are about 6 main east-west roads
and dozens of roads that head west to lakeshore cottage communities. We
use different ones each visit although some provide more shelter on
windy days than others. One of our favourites is Crystal Springs Road
just south of Bayfield.
We hope that others will give this location a try and post their
findings [or send your results to me].
Dave Martin
Harrietsville, ON
[email protected]
_______________________________________________
ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial
birding organization.
Send bird reports to [email protected]
For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
