Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 24, 2013 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 5855 30615 34227 Osprey 0 19 76 Bald Eagle 10 84 307 Northern Harrier 17 131 350 Sharp-shinned Hawk 267 1461 5972 Cooper's Hawk 10 232 484 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 49 87 105 Broad-winged Hawk 0 3 48629 Red-tailed Hawk 99 512 879 Rough-legged Hawk 0 4 4 Golden Eagle 1 5 7 American Kestrel 4 237 1127 Merlin 1 18 78 Peregrine Falcon 2 12 32 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 1 1 7 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: 6316 33422 92294 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Claude Radley, Todd Pepper Observers: Jim McCoy, Olga Klekner, Roland Klekner Visitors: The McQuire sisters from Amherstburg came out to learn about hawk migration in the morning, and the 2 lay sisters from Madonna House were out in the afternoon having followed a line on TV's all the way from Kingsville to Holiday Beach. A special thanks to Olga and Roland for showing up in the nick of time when a deluge of TV's, Sharpies, Red-shouldered & Red-tailed Hawks and Crows hit all at the same time. Also thanks to Claude for covering the tower for an hour during one of the busiest hours of the day while I went off to do other HBMO business. No apoligies to Jim today as he saw the Golden Eagle. Weather: A brisk day with the temperature between 2 and 9C. The wind blew consistently out of the West at around 16 km/hr. Even though there were pockets of sun it was mostly cloudy. Raptor Observations: Another good, and busy, day. Turkey Vultures made up 93% or 5,855 of the 6,316 raptors counted today. There was better diversity today with 11 species including good numbers of Sharp-shinned Hawks (267), Red-shouldered Hawks (49) and Red-tailed Hawks (99). We had all 3 Falcons, a Golden Eagle, and an amazing 10 more Bald Eagles bringing the year total to 307. The old yearly high of 215 Bald Eagles has definately been shattered. Non-raptor Observations: Not quite as busy as yesterday, but more diversity in the non-raptor species today with 9,731 birds of 18 species. Three species made up 96% of the total as follows: Red-winged Blackbird 5,641 birds or 58%; American Crow 2,903 birds or 30%; and European Starling at 768 birds for 8%. It was the first 100+ day for American Robins with 205 birds. Predictions: Friday is predicted to be a repeat of today, although slightly colder in the morning at 0C. The high is forecasted at 9. The winds will be out of the West again at the same range as today. Hopefully it will also be a repeat performance by the raptors. ======================================================================== 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
