Holiday Beach Conservation Area
Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 15, 2015
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
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Turkey Vulture 1558 21405 22860
Osprey 0 10 77
Bald Eagle 0 37 141
Northern Harrier 11 170 492
Sharp-shinned Hawk 275 1797 6641
Cooper's Hawk 8 79 133
Northern Goshawk 0 1 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 67 70
Broad-winged Hawk 0 152 16636
Red-tailed Hawk 1 131 234
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 1 1
American Kestrel 111 341 1435
Merlin 3 14 51
Peregrine Falcon 1 16 34
Unknown Accipiter 0 2 9
Unknown Buteo 0 7 33
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 0 2
Unknown Raptor 0 6 18
Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1
Total: 1968 24236 48869
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 14:30:00
Total observation time: 7.5 hours
Official Counter: Jenna McDermott
Observers: Bob Hall-Brooks, Dan Loncke, John Craft, Michael Williamson,
Olga Klekner
Visitors:
Gui and Adèle from Quebec started their week-long stay with some amazing
views this morning.
Weather:
Weather was a mixed bag with a cool 10C morning and not a cloud in the sky.
Wind was moderate, up to 15kph, and out of the W and SW. Just when it
started warming up, dark clouds moved in at noon and the wind died down for
a couple of hours. Now used to the calm weather again, the wind picked up
and brought some really dark rain clouds that proceeded to spit on us and
the wind picked up from the SW again. A few more bands of lighter clouds
and darker rain clouds came through, with the dark rain clouds winning out
and ending the count.
Raptor Observations:
What a surprise! The weather report predicting SW winds all day had us up
on the tower expecting few birds flying, and most likely far to the north
side of the marsh. Boy were we wrong... The morning brought a large number
of Sharp-shinned Hawks and another big influx of American Kestrels right
overhead and low down the beach. Everyone must have eaten some bad warblers
last night because almost all of them seemed to be taking out some anger on
the plastic owl, providing many amazing looks at mostly adult birds, and
causing much ooooohing and aaaahhing from the tower. Turkey Vultures
started out down the shore and later proceeded to exclusively fly along the
north side of the marsh (Thanks Mike for scoping those distant ones, and
finding our one Peregrine of the day!). A few Northern Harriers hunted the
marsh, and 3 Merlins shot by, making for a great morning. Numbers died down
drastically a bit after the wind calmed, and made for a quiet afternoon.
Non-raptor Observations:
Migrating passerine numbers were a bit down today, but we still saw 15
Cedar Waxwings, some Red-winged Blackbirds and American Goldfinches, and
just over 1000 Blue Jays. Two juvenile White-crowned Sparrows were feeding
at the base of the tower and two Chimney Swifts fluttered by. American
Crows are slowly starting to arrive. An interesting moment was at around
1:30 when there was a sudden increase in wind speed and out of nowhere a
large flock (over 40) of Golden and Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rumped
Warblers made their noisy way through the bushes below the tower and then
were gone! 1 Monarch battled its way towards the lake. See today's eBird
list http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S25428592
Predictions:
Moderate winds from the W most of the day until the late afternoon when
they should switch to the NW. A chance of showers in the afternoon.
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Report submitted by Jenna McDermott ([email protected])
Holiday Beach Conservation Area information may be found at:
http://hbmo.ca/
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