Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 22, 2012 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1164 22491 25193 Osprey 0 15 81 Bald Eagle 3 28 126 Northern Harrier 6 123 358 Sharp-shinned Hawk 63 1733 5055 Cooper's Hawk 49 260 406 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 106 142 154 Broad-winged Hawk 0 94 6055 Red-tailed Hawk 95 344 619 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 4 6 American Kestrel 3 138 893 Merlin 2 21 73 Peregrine Falcon 0 22 47 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: 1491 25421 39090 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Todd Pepper Observers: Claude Radley, Rene Kielbasa Visitors: Sandy and Anne visiting HBMO and Point Pelee from New York; 4 people from Harrow; a woman from LaSalle who brought her bird watching friend from Kitchener out to see us; a father and son from Essex; and 2 parent/teachers and 5 students from the Harrow co-operative home school program. Weather: A bright, sunny day with temperatures between 14C and 18C. Very light winds all day out of the south. Raptor Observations: The day certainly exceeded my expectatiions based on the weather forecast. A total of 1,491 birds of 9 species were counted today. The Red-shouldered Hawks are definately on the move. After yesterday's trickle we had 106 of them today, and interestingly most of them were adults. The highlight of the day, and a source of delight to the home-schooled children on the tower at the time, was a female Merlin that came in talons out and screaming at the Great Horned Owl decoy. Thanks to Rene Kielbasa and Nathalie Constantineau for scribing while I had my eye stuck to the scope. Non-raptor Observations: A reasonable day of migration for non-raptors, although only a fairly limited number of species. The big three of Blue Jay, American Crow and Red-winged Blackbird dominated the sky again at 3,310, 4,071, and 14,060 birds respectively. Other interesting species were: Killdeer - 9; Common Nighthawk - 3; Northern Flicker - 7; American Robin - 54; and, American Goldfinch at 111. Predictions: Thunder showers are predicted for Tuesday with a 60% chance in the a.m. and a 70% chance in the p.m. It is going to be another warm day with temperatures forecasted at 15C - 21C. Winds are forecasted to be out of the south-west at 10 - 15 km/hr. As long as the wind stays in the forecasted range we should continue to see accipitor migration, but the buteos will probably sit tight. ======================================================================== 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/
