Holiday Beach Conservation Area
Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 14, 2013
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
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Turkey Vulture 4410 13868 17480
Osprey 0 17 74
Bald Eagle 6 59 282
Northern Harrier 5 71 290
Sharp-shinned Hawk 42 631 5142
Cooper's Hawk 15 163 415
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 18 36
Broad-winged Hawk 0 3 48629
Red-tailed Hawk 114 261 628
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 2 4 6
American Kestrel 10 207 1097
Merlin 1 13 73
Peregrine Falcon 0 9 29
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0
Unknown Buteo 0 0 6
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 0 1
Gyrfalcon 0 1 1
Mississippi Kite 0 0 1
Swainson's Hawk 0 0 7
Total: 4606 15325 74197
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 17:00:00
Total observation time: 10 hours
Official Counter: Olga Klekner, Todd Pepper
Observers: Cindy Isenhoff, Frank Dolby, Larry Ludwicki, Olga Klekner,
Roland Klekner
Visitors:
With it being Canadian Thanksgiving Day today we had over 60 visitors to
the tower, some came with binoculars, scopes and cameras and stayed for a
while, while others just stopped by to see the swans, egrets and herons.
Either way it was nice to see them all including Ralph from McGregor who
comes out a couple times a year, Hugh and Liz from Windsor out for their
regular visit, and the family of 4 from Belle River who come out every year
at this time.
Weather:
A beautiful fall day with temperatures from 9 - 17C; just enough clouds to
provide some visual relief (and for raptors to hide in); and a steady
barometric pressure around 30.3 in Hg. Winds started out of the NNE,
shifted N for 4 fours, then NE, and finally S. The wind speed was generally
between 8 - 15 km/hr until the wind shifted to the S and then the wind
speed dropped to near 0.
Raptor Observations:
A great day of raptor watching, although almost all the birds were very
high, sometimes in and out of the clouds. A total of 4,606 raptors of 10
species. TV's, at 4,410 birds, represented 96% of the total birds for the
day. We had as many TV's in the last 2 hours of the count as we did in the
first 8 hours. Bald Eagle numbers continue to soar, with another 6 added
today.
Non-raptor Observations:
Most of the non-raptor migration, except for Blue Jays, was limited again
to the first two hours of the day. Jays kept flying from start to finish of
the count day and totalled 5,567. We had our first 1,000+ Red-winged
Blackbird day for the fall count season with 1,868 birds. American Crow are
still noticeable by their absence with only 9 birds today for a total of
only 37 for the year so far. Monarchs are still drifting through with 9
today.
Many thanks to Olga, Roland, and Larry who stayed on for 2 hours so I
could go home and have Thanksgiving dinner with my family.
Predictions:
The forecast for Tuesday is pretty much a copy cat of today except for wind
direction. It is going to be 9 - 20C, variable clouds, with winds out of
the E @ 15 km/hr in the a.m. and out of the SE @ 20 km/hr in the p.m. The E
winds in the a.m. should bring more Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks, and
perhaps keep them a little lower than they were today.
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Report submitted by Todd Pepper ([email protected])
Holiday Beach Conservation Area information may be found at:
http://hbmo.ca/
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