Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 25, 2012 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 373 23268 25970 Osprey 0 16 82 Bald Eagle 0 29 127 Northern Harrier 3 137 372 Sharp-shinned Hawk 64 1847 5169 Cooper's Hawk 4 273 419 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 17 200 212 Broad-winged Hawk 0 94 6055 Red-tailed Hawk 59 448 723 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 4 6 American Kestrel 4 150 905 Merlin 1 22 74 Peregrine Falcon 1 24 49 Unknown Accipiter 1 1 9 Unknown Buteo 0 3 6 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 2 2 Unknown Raptor 0 0 5 Black Vulture 0 0 1 Gyrfalcon 0 1 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 2 Total: 527 26520 40189 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Jeremy Hatt Observers: Chris Craft, Claude Radley, Dennis Patrick Visitors: Quite a few visitors today enjoying the last warm days before the weather shift this weekend! Visitors included 2 women all the way from New York who heard about Holiday Beach being rated in the top 3 hawk watch locations in North America. A few locals made their way up as well including 2 families who brought their children. Farthest visitors were from California right at the end of the day. Thanks to Dennis Patrick (unfortunately not with Gwen Gidge today!) and Chris Craft for helping count. Weather: Another warm day. Perhaps the last of the year. Temperatures ranged between 15C - 19C with light winds once again out of the southeast for the entire day. Raptor Observations: Similar to yesterday. Highlights included a Peregrine Falcon flying through as we closed up the count, a higher count of Red-tailed Hawks than the preceding day, and being able to release a newly banded juvenile of this species from the tower. Thanks to Claude Radley for bringing it up the tower to show us. We counted 527 birds of 8 species today. Non-raptor Observations: When I first arrived at the tower, there were thousands of blackbirds and starlings flying by the tower and over the marsh. It was quite the spectacle. Notable counts for the day included: American Crow - 1456, Horned Lark - 58, Tree Swallow - 68, American Pipit - 115, Cedar Waxwing - 95, Red-winged Blackbird - 7110, Eastern Meadowlark - 20, Rusty Blackbirds - 17, Common Grackle - 3495, Pine Siskin - 109, and American Goldfinch - 25. Predictions: Rainy conditions are predicted for most of the day. Temperatures will drop into the afternoon and range between 13C and 11C. The rain is predicted to stop after 4pm. Winds are out of the northwest and a great weekend of hawk watching is predicted once the rain has passed. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jeremy Hatt ([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/
