Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 06, 2015 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 380 8700 10155 Osprey 0 4 71 Bald Eagle 2 21 125 Northern Harrier 1 112 434 Sharp-shinned Hawk 85 958 5802 Cooper's Hawk 11 39 93 Northern Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 3 59 62 Broad-winged Hawk 0 152 16636 Red-tailed Hawk 0 101 204 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 1 1 American Kestrel 0 161 1255 Merlin 0 4 41 Peregrine Falcon 0 4 22 Unknown Accipiter 0 1 8 Unknown Buteo 0 5 31 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 2 Unknown Raptor 0 3 15 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 482 10326 34959 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Jenna McDermott Observers: Bob Hall-Brooks, Claude Radley, Jim McCoy Visitors: A fellow from Ohio spent a few hours, Claude brought up Karen who was awed by the numbers of Blue Jays, and Wayne visited with his family and friends. Weather: The air was very calm but when a slight breeze did show, it was all over the board, starting in the N and NE, and changing to NW, W and SW by the end of count. The first couple hours were quite foggy and even once that burnt off, it left behind almost full cloud all day. Temperatures were in the high teens all day. Raptor Observations: The few hours of north wind in the morning didn't bring any large numbers of raptors that might have been expected, and everything was quite high up. Instead, it turned out to be a very relaxing day, with not too much to count. A few more Cooper's Hawks have started showing up now amongst the Sharpies. 3 Red-shouldered Hawks, a Northern Harrier and 2 Bald Eagles rounded out the raptors for the day. A few impressive kettles of Turkey Vultures made their way across the north side of the marsh. Non-raptor Observations: Blue Jays were having a rough day being harassed and picked off one by one by the two Peregrine Falcons that were terrorizing the marsh all day. Many thanks to Bob and Jim who kept track of the 17,400 Blue Jays that successfully made it through this section of their migration. These flocks were punctuated by groups of starlings, Red-winged Blackbirds, a few Tree Swallows, and American Goldfinches. The sky was absolutely full of gulls by the time the afternoon rolled in. Yellow-rumped Warblers and White-throated Sparrows were abundant around the base of the hawk tower. 2 Monarchs. See today's eBird list http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S25321679 Predictions: Winds should be a tiny bit stronger than today from the west and then NW, so the afternoon has some potential for bringing in quite a lot of Turkey Vultures, hopefully with some raptors mixed in. ======================================================================== 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
