Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 16, 2012 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 920 18761 21463 Osprey 0 11 77 Bald Eagle 0 23 121 Northern Harrier 5 81 316 Sharp-shinned Hawk 27 1271 4593 Cooper's Hawk 16 122 268 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 6 17 29 Broad-winged Hawk 2 94 6055 Red-tailed Hawk 27 203 478 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 3 5 American Kestrel 3 130 885 Merlin 0 16 68 Peregrine Falcon 0 18 43 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: 1006 20756 34425 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Todd Pepper Observers: Chris Craft, Jim McCoy Visitors: Locally we had a couple from Tecumseh and Peter and Astrid from Kingsville up for another visit. We had a family of 3 from Lexington, Kentucky just wrapping up a long weekend in the area. We also had 4 international students and a chaperone from the Moody Bible College in Chicago - the students were from Sierra Leone, Germany, Korea and Canada. Winning today's long distance visitor award was a couple from New Brunswick who came down to bird Point Pelee and Hillman Marsh (they were here 10 years ago) before going to visit family in Cambridge. Weather: A nice day, but not for raptor migration! Temperatures ranged between 8.5C to 16C; winds were very light starting in the a.m. out of the south-west and switching to south in the p.m.; clouds were very variable today. Raptor Observations: A slow day for raptor migration except for Turkey Vultures. All 920 TV's were way out past the north tree line often requiring a scope to see if there was anything else flying in the kettles. The number of TV's represented 92% of the total of 1006 birds of 7 species. A interesting, but very small "kettle" late in the afternoon that consisted of 1 Red-shouldered Hawk and 1 male Northern Harrier. Non-raptor Observations: A fairly busy migration day for non-raptors that saw me using 4 clickers at once to keep track. Felt like that plate spinner from the old Ed Sullivan Show days. Only 1 Chimney Swift today, but here are some other highlights: Eastern Phoebe - 2 Blue Jay - 5,020 American Crow - 2,456 Red-breasted Nuthatch - 7 White-breasted Nuthatch - 2 American Robin - 58 Cedar Waxwing - 38 Yellow-rumped Warbler - 36 Red-winged Blackbird - 11,080 Rusty Blackbird - 68 House Finch - 13 American Goldfinch - 986 Predictions: The forecast is for a mostly sunny day with temperatures ranging from 12C - 22C; but winds out of the south again at 30 - 35 km/hr. Not looking like another good day for raptor migration, but come out and keep the volunteer counter company. ======================================================================== 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/
