Holiday Beach Conservation Area
Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 29, 2013
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
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Turkey Vulture 482 36067 39679
Osprey 0 19 76
Bald Eagle 2 100 323
Northern Harrier 8 161 380
Sharp-shinned Hawk 46 1945 6456
Cooper's Hawk 38 318 570
Northern Goshawk 1 1 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 176 371 389
Broad-winged Hawk 0 3 48629
Red-tailed Hawk 925 2141 2508
Rough-legged Hawk 10 17 17
Golden Eagle 4 20 22
American Kestrel 0 248 1138
Merlin 2 25 85
Peregrine Falcon 0 13 33
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0
Unknown Buteo 1 2 8
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 0 1
Gyrfalcon 0 1 1
Mississippi Kite 0 0 1
Swainson's Hawk 0 0 7
Total: 1695 41452 100324
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 9 hours
Official Counter: Todd Pepper
Observers: Jeanice Seals, Jim McCoy, Mike Fitzpatrick, Olga Klekner,
Phyllis Coble, Roland Klekner
Visitors:
Two of the Tennessee Trio showed up for the annual visit and will be around
for a few days. Only 1 other visitor, a photographer, but the birds were
all too high in the sky to photograph. Thanks again to all the official
observers today who were wise enough not to look into the sun quite as
often as I did!
Weather:
A mostly cloudy day with shifting winds. The temperature was between 6 and
13C. The winds started out of the NE, and while the in-land wind direction
as indicated by the wind turbines located north of the hawk tower continued
to show a NE influence (although much reduced as shown by the rotation of
the blades) the "lake effect" kicked in at Noon EST and shifted the winds
at the tower to SE.
Raptor Observations:
Another busy day, and the first one where Red-tailed Hawks (925)overtook
Turkey Vultures (482) for the #1 position. The total raptor count was 1,695
birds of 10 species. We also had our 1st Northern Goshawk for the year
(thanks Mike) and we broke the 100,000 raptor mark for the year. At the
rate we are going it could be the highest year count in the last 10 years.
The birds started high first thing in the a.m. and stayed that way with the
buteos often drifting in and out of the clouds (Ceiling at 10,700ft).
Non-raptor Observations:
Fewer non-raptors flying today with a total of 22,143 of 16 species.
American Crows flew intermittantly today and totaled only 7,079 birds
compared to yesterday's 30,955. Red-winged Blackbirds only flew in the
first few hours of the day and totaled 14,188 compared to yesterday at
79,518. Birds of note were a late Ruby-throated Hummingbird (it has been 17
days since the last one) and a single Caspian Tern (5 days since the last
one).
Predictions:
The Wednesday forecast is for S winds in the morning shifting to SE in the
afternoon at 10 - 15 km/hr. Another mild fall day with temperatures in the
range of 40- 16 and sunny most of the day.
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Report submitted by Todd Pepper ([email protected])
Holiday Beach Conservation Area information may be found at:
http://hbmo.ca/
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