Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 11, 2013 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 8 124 124 Osprey 1 27 27 Bald Eagle 0 69 69 Northern Harrier 2 68 68 Sharp-shinned Hawk 28 888 888 Cooper's Hawk 6 69 69 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 1 1 Broad-winged Hawk 0 169 169 Red-tailed Hawk 0 84 84 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 3 206 206 Merlin 9 27 27 Peregrine Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 1 1 Total: 57 1734 1734 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Todd Pepper Observers: Visitors: Mary and Phil Collins from Mississauga made their annual visit to HBMO and stayed for 4 hours. Patricia Kelvin from Colchester and her sister from Port Perry stopped by just in time to adopt a 1st year female Sharp-shinned Hawk. Weather: Another hot day, but not as bad as predicted. Temperatures ranged from 24 - 29C. The south-west winds off the lake in the 5 km/hr range provided enough breeze to make it more tolerable than yesterday. Visibility was limited to 5 - 8 km all day due to haze. Raptor Observations: As might be expected is was a slow day, however we still had 57 birds of 7 species. Sharp-shins topped the list at 27 birds, while there were 9 Merlins. Every Merlin came in to strafe the owl on top of the flag pole above my head on the hawk tower. Non-raptor Observations: Cedar Waxwings kept up their pace as the passerine leader so far this fall with another 473 birds today. By this date last year we had only counted 90 Waxwings. Other birds of interest included: Lesser Yellowlegs - 2; Chimney Swift - 17; Red-headed Woodpecker - 1; House Finch - 22; American Goldfinch - 48. The first flock of Common Starling flew over today, but after counting 560 birds they all turned around and went back east. Only 2 Monarch flew past me today, but at least a dozen more were observed in the vicinity of the tower. Predictions: The forecast for Thursday is looking very promising with temperatures within a narrow range of 23 - 24C; variable cloudiness, and most important, winds out of the north-west at 15 km/hr. Should be good for Bald Eagle, Osprey, and perhaps the next group of Red-tailed Hawk. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Todd Pepper ([email protected]) Holiday Beach Conservation Area information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/ _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup
