Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 08, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 10 152 152 Osprey 3 9 9 Bald Eagle 3 88 88 Northern Harrier 13 134 134 Sharp-shinned Hawk 55 307 307 Cooper's Hawk 1 14 14 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 10 588 588 Red-tailed Hawk 4 102 102 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 1 262 263 Merlin 0 16 18 Peregrine Falcon 1 5 5 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 4 4 Total: 101 1681 1684 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Michael Burton-Smith Observers: Hugh Kent, Liz Kent, Mike Jaber, Peter Veighey Visitors: Yet another massive thank you to Peter, Mike, Hugh and Liz who joined me in the tower today and kept spirits high even when bird numbers were low! It was lovely to be joined by visitors Mark, Keith, Steve, David, Mark and Sarah through the day. Weather: Partially cloudy with light north-easterlies turning to south-easterlies in the afternoon. Temperatures in the high twenties throughout the day, pushing 30 degrees in the mid-afternoon. Raptor Observations: Relatively quiet again without enough wind to squeeze the raptors along the northern shore of Lake Eerie. Still over a hundred raptors seen across the day, including 55 Sharp-shinned Hawks which passed through regularly throughout the day. Unexpectedly, just one Kestrel and no Merlins. Non-raptor Observations: The day's checklist can be view at https://ebird.org/checklist/S391132368. Overall relatively quiet today, with only minor movements of American Goldfinch through the day and a massive work-up of three-thousand Tree Swallows in the early morning. The two birds of the day were our first Purple Finch of the season (a male coming out of breeding plumage), and a probable hybrid Nashville x Tennessee Warbler. Details of the warbler have been submitted onto eBird for review, and hopefully it will appear again and can be photographed for confirmation. Predictions: With storms threatening in the afternoon and strong southerlies turning to easterlies through the day, tomorrow does not look especially promising for raptor migration. We will try and arrive early to catch any Sharp-shinned Hawks moving in the morning to avoid the rain, and to see if there is any increase in warbler activity with the cooler temperatures. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Michael Burton-Smith () 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