Holiday Beach Hawk Watch
Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
Turkey Vulture 0 55246 57823
Osprey 0 13 43
Bald Eagle 0 302 467
Northern Harrier 2 321 757
Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 2299 7262
Cooper's Hawk 0 165 292
American Goshawk 0 1 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 303 303
Broad-winged Hawk 0 19 40251
Red-tailed Hawk 0 1412 1582
Rough-legged Hawk 0 8 8
Golden Eagle 0 31 32
American Kestrel 0 186 1147
Merlin 0 21 108
Peregrine Falcon 0 25 66
Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 0
Unknown Buteo 0 20 21
Unknown Eagle 0 2 2
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 3 3
Black Vulture 0 1 1
Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 08:45:00
Total observation time: 1.75 hours
Official Counter: Kiah Jasper
Observers: Mike Jaber, Noel Herdman
Visitors:
Thanks to Noel and Mike for coming out to keep me company in the miserable
weather this morning, and an extra thanks to Noel for bringing hot
chocolate for the hawk counter : )
Weather:
Today was forecasted to be a wet and windy day, and sure enough that's what
it was! When I arrived at the tower it was still fairly dark at 8am due to
the heavy cloud cover and rain was hammering down on my car windshield. The
temperature remained near 7C for the whole observation period, so at least
it was warmer than previous days. The radar showed the possibility of the
rain letting up later in the morning, so we decided to wait until 9:30 to
see what happened. Unfortunately the weather continued to deteriorate
though, so we called it quits at 9:45 since the rain had increased in
ferocity and the forecast for the rest of the day remained poor.
Raptor Observations:
Two Northern Harriers were seen briefly around 8:30, but they decided not
to cross the marsh and headed back to the east. Harriers are the one raptor
that often braves the rain and continues to fly even on these poor weather
days. No other raptors were observed today.
Non-raptor Observations:
There was not migration to speak of for non raptors either, making for a
rather dule morning on the tower. 2 Common Loons drifted just offshore on
Lake Erie, and on the marsh 80 American White Pelicans and 2 Common
Gallinules continue to be seen. Only 41 species were observed from the
tower today, for the full list see the eBird checklist below.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S282053930
Predictions:
Tomorrow should be a chilly day on the tower, feeling only like 2C in the
morning. The sky should be clear of rain though, starting off cloudy with
the possibility of some sun later in the day. The wind will be strong out
of the west, with a small chance of a north component. There should be some
vultures and perhaps buteos moving, though the number will really depend on
if we can get a northwest wind or not.
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Report submitted by Kiah Jasper (kiahbirder@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