Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 15, 2014 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 122 22310 24515 Osprey 0 19 53 Bald Eagle 2 49 186 Northern Harrier 4 58 286 Sharp-shinned Hawk 29 1406 5940 Cooper's Hawk 2 56 207 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 16 55 Broad-winged Hawk 0 25 36331 Red-tailed Hawk 3 350 605 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 0 1 6 American Kestrel 0 219 925 Merlin 0 6 53 Peregrine Falcon 0 18 36 Unknown Accipiter 0 2 17 Unknown Buteo 1 23 50 Unknown Eagle 0 1 1 Unknown Falcon 0 3 4 Unknown Raptor 1 11 34 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 165 24574 69306 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Jenna McDermott Observers: Carol Pitts, Claude Radley, Ed Pitts Visitors: A quiet day, with John Balga visiting after working a little bit on the Purple Martin houses. Weather: It was a beautiful day on the tower with winds less than 5km/h coming from combinations of the south and east. We had a lot of blue sky for the 4 middle hours of the count and temperatures ranged from 16C to 23C. Raptor Observations: We had over 100 Turkey Vultures today, but they were really far on the north side of the marsh and barely visible in binoculars. Thankfully, we had a really nice look at a few birds to make up for it. One highlight was an adult Red-Shouldered Hawk (that didn't end up migrating) which came up really close to the tower and did a couple circles around before disappearing again. Another (migrating) Red-Shoulder was corralling a small murmuration of starlings and hung around the group for a minute before flying out. There was a surprise at the end of the day from a nocturnal raptor: a Great Horned Owl was calling from what sounded like the picnic area of Holiday Beach! Non-raptor Observations: There were passerines flying all over the marsh until around 1 EST when the skies became much quieter. American Goldfinches were flying in big flocks of up to 80 birds today, totalling 793 by the end of the count. Kinglets were seen all throughout the bushes around the tower, along with Yellow-rumped Warblers. Flocks of European Starlings, Red-winged Blackbirds, Rusty Blackbirds and one Brown-headed Cowbird were seen today as well, along with 102 American Crows. See today's eBird list http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S20244191 Predictions: North winds for the morning look a bit more promising to bring some raptors through, though there is a chance of drizzle and a wind switch to the West in the afternoon. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jenna McDermott ([email protected]) Holiday Beach Conservation Area information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/ _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide
