Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 01, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 8 8 3481 Osprey 0 0 26 Bald Eagle 0 0 207 Northern Harrier 3 3 584 Sharp-shinned Hawk 4 4 5438 Cooper's Hawk 1 1 113 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 1 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 107054 Red-tailed Hawk 0 0 402 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 0 0 1369 Merlin 2 2 105 Peregrine Falcon 4 4 38 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 1 Unknown Buteo 0 0 2 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 2 Unknown Raptor 0 0 22 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 22 22 118846 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:30:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 6.5 hours Official Counter: Michael Burton-Smith Observers: Hugh Kent, Liz Kent, Mike Jaber Visitors: Thanks to Hugh, Liz and Mike for helping conduct today's count, and to Neil, Marg, Cecile, Donald, Pilla and our other visitors for joining us on the tower. Weather: Light drizzle in the early morning and afternoon, with calm overcast conditions for the remainder of the day. Very gentle southerly at times. Raptor Observations: An incredible increase on yesterday's zero Turkey Vultures with eight birds passing through between 1100 and 1200 EST. It was exhausting needing to count using both hands! A very unremarkable day with the exception of four amazing Peregrine Falcons who hunted across the marsh throughout the day. Non-raptor Observations: The day's checklist can be viewed at https://ebird.org/checklist/S398120699. The light drizzle and cloud cover in the morning kept the small birds active, with an impressive thirteen species of warbler along with three kinds of flycatcher and a nice flock of twelve White-throated Sparrow. We were very excited to find our first Brown Creeper of the season, as well as flyover Black-bellied Plover and Eastern Meadowlark. It is a good time to be a herper on the tower, with American Bullfrogs very active amongst the fragmites and several species of turtle seen through the day. Also of note was an Eastern Meadow Vole, adding to our very tidy mammal tally. Predictions: Tomorrow has a lot of potential as long as the forecast holds. Overnight rain reducing to drizzle in the early morning will be great for keeping small birds active around the tower - we can hope for a few October migrants like the kinglets, Rusty Blackbirds and White-throated Sparrows, along with late warblers and maybe more creepers, flycatchers and sparrows. More importantly, the cloudy skies and strong northerly winds through the day will be great for raptor viewing, and so we will hopefully see a little bit of Turkey Vulture action in the afternoon. ======================================================================== 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