Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 09, 2014 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 2 83 83 Osprey 0 7 7 Bald Eagle 1 29 29 Northern Harrier 0 39 39 Sharp-shinned Hawk 104 193 193 Cooper's Hawk 12 25 25 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 10 22 22 Red-tailed Hawk 2 37 37 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 3 78 78 Merlin 3 18 18 Peregrine Falcon 1 2 2 Unknown Accipiter 7 9 9 Unknown Buteo 12 12 12 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Raptor 0 4 4 Total: 157 559 559 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Jenna McDermott Observers: Claude Radley Visitors: 2 photographers stopped by today, one from ERCA and another from The Windsor Star who is doing a piece on declines in bird populations with climate change. John from Mississagua spent the last couple of hours on the tower, spotting distant Sharpies. Weather: A pretty calm day starting with no wind and then increasing to 4km/h coming from the S/SE. Temperatures increased from 21-26C and visibility ranged between 4 and 15km. Raptor Observations: The morning was fairly slow until around 10am when Sharp-shinned Hawks started flying through in their small groups close overhead, making it to 104 by the end of the day! A few Coopers were mixed in with them, just to keep us on our toes. Just after 11am, the birds started flying through farther inland and a few buteos and Turkey Vultures added themselves to the count. To provide some entertainment during a slow period, one of the resident Osprey took offense to a Great Blue Heron flying too close by and proceeded to chase it across the marsh in a great hurry. At the end of the day there had been 157 migrating raptors total. Non-raptor Observations: At the passerine banding station, Swainson's Thrushes made up the majority of birds along with a smattering of Grey-cheeked Thrush. The first 2 Common Nighthawks of the season came through, along with 10 Killdeer, 6 Green-winged Teal, 3 Chimney Swifts, 2 R-Throated Hummingbirds, 49 Cedar Waxwings and 47 American Goldfinches. Swallows definitely came in first place today with 130 flying over before the raptors started picking up. 21 Monarchs. Predictions: A cloudy day with stronger winds of 25-35km/h from the South and a high chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jenna McDermott ([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 Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide
