Last night about 7:15pm we sat out on our terrace looking out over Lake Ontario toward the St Lawrence River. Clouds hung low, and a very gentle sprinkle of rain was imminent. A bit of sunshine peeked through.
The sky was full of gulls (perhaps 30 or so), with a glimmer of sunlight hitting their wings. The gulls were about 100 feet up, soaring around obviously catching flying insects. And with the gulls soared six or seven nighthawks, soundlessly bugging as well. I have never before seen such obvious gull bug-hunting in the air. Nor have I ever before seen a soundless flock of nighthawks soaring with the gulls. 'Twas lovely while it lasted. They dispersed in a few minutes. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Aug 30 17:25:40 2004 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from taiga.com (mugwump.taiga.com [68.165.54.133]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7EA9A48718 for <[email protected]>; Mon, 30 Aug 2004 17:25:40 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 13551 invoked by uid 525); 30 Aug 2004 21:17:46 -0000 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 30 Aug 2004 05:08:46 -0400 Subject: [Ontbirds]HSR: Cranberry Marsh (30 Aug 2004) 7 Raptors X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 21:25:41 -0000 Cranberry Marsh Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Aug 30, 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 1 1 Osprey 2 27 27 Bald Eagle 0 0 0 Northern Harrier 0 6 6 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 7 7 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 0 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 37 37 Red-tailed Hawk 0 8 8 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 3 13 13 Merlin 0 3 3 Peregrine Falcon 1 1 1 Unknown 0 9 9 Total: 7 112 112 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 5 hours Official Counter: Karl Jennewein Observers: Charlie Adey, Derek & Jennifer Lyon, Ian Cannell, Ron Fleming Visitors: The watch is attracting wonderful attention from local and "afar" visitors as well as excellent help to monitior the hawk migration Weather: medium north winds all day; BP steady; complete cloud cover; TUV=4 (Thermal Updraft Velocity of 400 ft./min.), a reading of over 4 may be a factor conducive to a hawk flight, if factored in with the BP and winds direction. Observations: 2 Ospreys, 1 Sharp-shinned, 3 Am.Kestrels, 1 Peregrine Red-breasted Nuthatch; many Hummingbirds, N.Mockingbird; several Warblers--chestnut-sided, redstart, black-throated green; 2 GREAT EGRETS; 4 LONG-TAILED DUCKS on the waterfront BUTTERFLIES-- 1 Monarch, several Viceroys, 1 Red Admiral ======================================================================== Report submitted by John Douglas Lockrey ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Cranberry Marsh information may be found at: http://www.gtrw.ca
