Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 17, 2014 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 769 23291 25496 Osprey 0 19 53 Bald Eagle 1 52 189 Northern Harrier 4 72 300 Sharp-shinned Hawk 58 1563 6097 Cooper's Hawk 1 58 209 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 22 61 Broad-winged Hawk 0 25 36331 Red-tailed Hawk 0 356 611 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 0 1 6 American Kestrel 5 226 932 Merlin 3 10 57 Peregrine Falcon 2 21 39 Unknown Accipiter 0 2 17 Unknown Buteo 0 24 51 Unknown Eagle 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 1 4 5 Unknown Raptor 1 12 35 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 845 25760 70492 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Jenna McDermott Observers: Carol Pitts, Claude Radley, Ed Pitts Visitors: It was a slow day for visitors until near the end, when a man from Stratford and a group of 15 old-time friends from Sarnia came up to the tower to enjoy the view and look at a couple of our distant resident Eagles. Though there weren't many raptors at the time, they came up just in time for the sun to come out! Weather: Winds came mostly from the S today between 4 and 8km/h with gusts up to 20km/h, though I think the trees along the beach stopped a lot of the wind from reaching us at the tower; the waves were quite loud! The full cloud cover broke up a bit in the last hour, providing some sun and bringing the temperature up to 18C. Raptor Observations: Turkey Vultures were really working our addition and subtraction today, with large groups travelling along the shoreline, moving backwards again to join other groups that had yet to be counted, and going the length of the beach a few more times before finally heading west, out of sight. They were certainly not in a hurry! Sharp-shinned Hawks made up our next biggest numbers with 58. It was really nice to see all 3 falcon species: Kestrels, Merlins and Peregrines. Non-raptor Observations: The skies during the first hour of the count were filled with Tree Swallows (215), they just kept zooming in out of the west. After that, we didn't have many of the big flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds or huge numbers of Goldfinches either, but Starlings put in a good show as usual with 1770, often pointing us towards a Bald Eagle or Red-tailed Hawk. Kinglets, Sparrows and Yellow-rumped Warblers were abundant again in the vegetation around the tower. See today's eBird list http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S20261656 Predictions: Winds will be switching to the NW and N (20-25km/h) with some clouds in the mix, hopefully it'll bring some more of our buteos (Red-tailed, Red-shouldered Hawks) in with the Turkey Vultures! ======================================================================== 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
