Holiday Beach Hawk Watch
Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 26, 2024
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
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Turkey Vulture 3392 59572 61469
Osprey 0 3 24
Bald Eagle 33 190 317
Northern Harrier 22 345 868
Sharp-shinned Hawk 175 3074 8445
Cooper's Hawk 9 119 209
American Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 43 326 327
Broad-winged Hawk 0 73 4331
Red-tailed Hawk 176 1299 1671
Rough-legged Hawk 8 16 16
Golden Eagle 21 39 39
American Kestrel 4 330 1702
Merlin 4 28 85
Peregrine Falcon 3 42 83
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0
Unknown Buteo 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 0 0
Mississippi Kite 0 0 1
Swainson's Hawk 0 1 2
Total: 3890 65457 79589
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 17:00:00
Total observation time: 10 hours
Official Counter: Kiah Jasper
Observers: Jeremy Bensette, Karen Padbury, Kate Derbyshire,
Noel Herdman, Paul Gosselin, Peter Veighey
Visitors:
Thanks to Noel, Paul, Karen, Peter, Kate, and Jeremy for helping with the
spotting and counting today. We were visited by Dan from Windsor, Phil and
Nancy from Sarnia, Carole and Brian from Toronto, John from Windsor, Dave,
Nancy and Renee from Ohio, Andrew, Kara, George and Edmund from Harrow,
Mike from Lakeshore, Jeff and Shana from Chatham-Kent, John and Natasha
from Tecumseh, Norm and Kristin from Wheatley, Kelly and Dennis from
Wheatley, Lou and Toni from Windsor, Kat from Michigan and Peter & Michelle
from Lasalle... a busy day on the tower!
Weather:
Starting off the temperature was 5 Degrees C, with a clear sky and 15kph
WNW winds. We were a bit concerned with how westerly the wind was, but
luckily it shifted more to the Northwest around 09:00. For the remainder of
the day the wind remained out of the Northwest, sometimes quite light and
others gusting to 30kph. the clear blue sky grew increasingly cloudy in the
afternoon, with a max of 60% cloud cover... Ideal raptor spotting
conditions. The temperature maxed out at 13 Degrees C. The barometer rose
to 30.20.
Raptor Observations:
Today was a fantastic day for raptors on the tower, with lots of
individuals and a nice diversity of species. It started off a bit quiet in
the early morning, but things started ramping up after 11:00 and continued
to be good for the rest of the day. The flight was dominated by Turkey
Vultures, with 3,392 recorded. The vulture flight was much closer than it
has been recently, at times birds passed directly over the tower. There was
a good mix of other species in with the vultures, including Bald Eagle
(33), Red-tailed Hawk (176), Red-shouldered Hawk (43), Northern Harrier
(22) and Sharp-shinned Hawk (175). The highlight birds by far today though
were the prized northern species, Rough-legged Hawk and Golden Eagle. We
recorded 21 Golden Eagles today, which is in the top ten counts of HBMO's
50 years of data. These birds were almost all immatures (one adult type),
and many gave us amazing views through our scopes. At one point we even had
5 in view at once! We also counted 8 Rough-legged Hawks, including 1
beautiful dark morph bird (my favourite Ontario hawk). It was just one of
those magical fall afternoons to be on the tower, the kind that only happen
a few times a season.
Non-raptor Observations:
510 American White Pelican continue to be seen in the marsh, their numbers
holding strong in spite on the cold weather. Morning songbird flight was
also decent today, highlighted by; 1 Eastern Meadowlark, 16 Yellow-rumped
Warbler, 11 American Pipit, 11 Pine Siskin, 28 Purple Finch and 25 Eastern
Bluebirds. Other highlights today included; 1 Common Loom, 2 Sandhill
Cranes, 1 Blackpoll Warbler and the first American Tree Sparrow of the
season.
75 species were recorded from the tower today, for the full list click this
eBird link - https://ebird.org/checklist/S200392321
Predictions:
Tomorrow will start off colder today, near the freezing mark. The winds are
predicted to be light from the Southwest and the sky clear. We will likely
see less numbers than today, but it could be an alright day with a few more
Golden Eagles.
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Report submitted by Kiah Jasper (kiahbir...@gmail.com)
Holiday Beach Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://hbmo.ca/
More site information at hawkcount.org:
https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=100
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