Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 13, 2012 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 120 16504 19206 Osprey 0 11 77 Bald Eagle 3 23 121 Northern Harrier 6 72 307 Sharp-shinned Hawk 25 1103 4425 Cooper's Hawk 6 92 238 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 11 23 Broad-winged Hawk 0 92 6053 Red-tailed Hawk 14 169 444 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 3 5 American Kestrel 2 116 871 Merlin 0 14 66 Peregrine Falcon 0 17 42 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 8 Unknown Buteo 0 3 6 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Raptor 0 0 5 Black Vulture 0 0 1 Gyrfalcon 0 1 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 2 Total: 178 18233 31902 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Todd Pepper Observers: Chris Craft Visitors: Donny Moore from Harrow - who should be updated to "official observer" status; Mary from Royal Oak and her friend from up near Saginaw; our regular Saturday visitor from LaSalle; and, a group of 8 birders from Kalamazoo. The teenagers in the crowd were not appreciative of my rendition of "I've got a gal in Kalamazoo" the famous Glenn Miller tune. Weather: A very cloudy day with occassional periods of rain. Winds out of the SE the majority of the day from 5 - 10 km/hr; temperature form 9C - 12.5C. Raptor Observations: A relatively slow day with 178 birds of 8 species. Almost 70% of the day total was Turkey Vultures. Only 2 American Kestrels, and a Merlin flying the wrong way. A couple interesting birds today including: an Intermediate (Harlan's) juvenile Red-tailed Hawk; and, the most bedraggled Broad-winged Hawk I have ever seen. It looked like Edward Scissorhands had got ahold of it and decided to cut odd shapes into it's wings, so much so that it was hard to identify the bird to species. I managed to get some photos before my battery died. Non-raptor Observations: A generally slow day for passerine migration as well. It started off strong, but by Noon EST there was hardly a bird in the sky. Some highlights included: Red-headed Woodpecker - 2 Northern Flicker - 5 Blue Jay - 3,367 American Crow - 995 Kinglet sp. - 61 Yellow-rumped Warbler - 79 Dark-eyed Junco - 14 Red-winged Blackbird - 1,790. Predictions: Another day of south winds, but even stronger at 30 - 40 km/hr. Temperatures are projected to be from 17C - 20C. The big question is rain. The prediction is a 40% chance in the morning and up to 80% in the afternoon, however with less than 1 mm of rain in each of those period. The forecast does not bode well for migration. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Todd Pepper ([email protected]) Holiday Beach Migration Observatory information may be found at: http://hbmo.org/ _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
