Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 18, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 90 489 489 Osprey 1 30 30 Bald Eagle 16 86 86 Northern Harrier 36 221 221 Sharp-shinned Hawk 768 3661 3661 Cooper's Hawk 2 47 47 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 24246 56088 56088 Red-tailed Hawk 18 103 103 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 117 723 723 Merlin 7 74 74 Peregrine Falcon 2 13 13 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 Total: 25303 61535 61535 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Chuck Sharbaugh, Karen Padbury, Liz Kent, Noel Herdman, Patrick Tomlinson, Steve Wagner Visitors: Many thanks to observers Chuck, Karen, Noel, Patrick, Steve, Leon, Matt, Dave and Jane who helped spot the massive numbers of Hawks flying today. Special thanks to Patrick and Steve who took over as official counter(s) for the last two hours. It was good to meet Phil, Brenda and Keith, Denis from Ann Arbor and other visitors who were lucky to see such a fantastic spectacle of Broad wing migration. Weather: A good moderate wind from the north west all day. The sky started clear but cloud cover gradually increased to midday but decreased again in the afternoon. Temperature was around a comfortable 20c most of the day. Visibility remained good all day. Raptor Observations: An amazing Broad-winged Hawk day. By mid morning we had about 3000 over, mostly to the north, then it went quiet for a couple of hours until early afternoon, when we had huge streams overhead and to the south for a couple of hours with over 15,000 in one hour, finishing up with a count of 24,246 for the day. Sharp-shinned Hawks (768) were continuous throughout the day with American Kestrels starting earlier than usual and flying past for the rest of the day. A good number of Northern Harriers (36) floated by and later in the day Turkey Vultures (90) were joining in. Another good day for Merlins (7) and a few Red-tailed Hawks (18) accompanied the Broad wing stream. All in all the best day yet. Non-raptor Observations: Ducks continue to increase with eight species seen, including a few small groups of Northern Pintail flying into the Marsh. American Coot (5) were a new species for the season, the first of very many! It was also nice to see two Sandhill Cranes flying west over the marsh. Songbirds were quiet today, probably due to the brisk wind. However a good number of Cedar Waxwing (198) flocks flew west over the Tower. Monarch Butterfly (38) numbers were lower today. The list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S150234610 Predictions: The wind is light and starts from the north west in early morning, soon turning to come from the south west for the rest of the day. Cloud cover will increase as the day goes on. Temperature similar to today. It's likely that we will not see big numbers of Broad wings but Sharp-shins and Kestrels hopefully will keep coming. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Hugh Kent (Hughnkent@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