Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 29, 2012 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 254 1813 1813 Osprey 2 62 62 Bald Eagle 1 96 96 Northern Harrier 22 216 216 Sharp-shinned Hawk 286 2678 2678 Cooper's Hawk 7 133 133 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 5 5 Broad-winged Hawk 113 5773 5773 Red-tailed Hawk 2 181 181 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 2 2 American Kestrel 30 718 718 Merlin 3 50 50 Peregrine Falcon 0 22 22 Unknown Accipiter 0 8 8 Unknown Buteo 0 3 3 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 5 5 Black Vulture 0 1 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1 Total: 720 11767 11767 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:30:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9.5 hours Official Counter: Todd Pepper Observers: Bob Pettit, John Winebrenner, Kory Renaud, Lisa Silvey Visitors: Many! What a pleasure to welcome a regular flow of first time visitors from the Essex-Windsor area in response to recent media coverage. Long-distance visitors included 2 couples from Toronto, 2 couples from Whitby; 2 of our annual visitors from Indiana; 4 people from Virginia; and, 66 1st year University of Windsor Biology students taking a 1st year course in ornithology. Many thanks to Donny; John; Lisa; Dr. Dan; President Bob; Kory; and others who assisted in spotting birds today and staffing the "clickers". Weather: Another beautiful fall day! Temperatures ranged from 9 - 22C, winds were light, under 5 km/hr from the north in the a.m. and shifted to south/west in the p.m. There was fog for the first 2 hours and visibility remained limited for 2 more hours. Raptor Observations: A reasonable day of migration with 720 birds of 10 species.Sharp-shinned hawks kept us busy between 9 - 11 a.m. EST with 80 each hour flying in 3 streams - one south of the tower along the beach, one over the tower and one to the north. Highlights were a female Merlin in the late afternoon that just about flew into the camera lenses of those on the tower; an obliging and beautifully plumaged Osprey that circled the trout pond immediately to north-east of the tower for almost an hour; and, a very handsome male Northern Harrier that passed at eye-level and just 30 metres north of the tower. Non-raptor Observations: Another good Blue Jay migration day with 39,433 birds counted. Other highlights include: 9 Chimney Swifts; 1 Belted Kingfisher - interestingly flying in a kettle with Broad-winged Hawks and Turkey Vultures; 146 Kinglets; the first wave of Yellow-rumped Warblers at 42 birds; 344 American Goldfinch; and, the first significant move of Red-winged Blackbirds. Predictions: Another repeat of today. ======================================================================== 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 [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
