Hey Birders, I took another run at the site north of Grand Bend, anticipating that today would have a great hawk flight, with the strong NE winds. Turned out to be a great day!
Highlights: 148 Rough-legged Hawks - mostly light morphs (80%) 12 Golden Eagles - primarily adults (interesting) 1 Northern Goshawk - imm. (likely female) Other interesting birds: 15 Red-throated Loons 4 Sandhill Cranes 8 Red-shouldered Hawks (7 adults, 1 imm.) 129 Red-tailed Hawks 1,090 Black-capped Chickadee's -- who knew the Lake Huron shoreline would have such great numbers of these guys/gals irrupting (evidently there is a happy Merlin, or two, in the area) Finch numbers were lower compared to yesterday, likely due to the tailwind assisting birds in migrating (higher up), though still 4 species (CORE, PISI, AMGO, PUFI) Around 1:30pm the winds shifted from NE to more N (or even NW), and subsequently the hawk flight died. With the strong NE winds, many of the birds were right overhead, or even migrating south over the water. https://ebird.org/canada/view/checklist/S49622880 Cheers, Ken Burrell kenneth.gd.burr...@gmail.com The *Best Places to Bird in Ontario* - in stores spring 2019. Find out more http://burrellbirding.ca/ _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca 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 Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists