Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 15, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 0 159 181 Osprey 0 10 10 Bald Eagle 0 59 62 Northern Harrier 7 148 167 Sharp-shinned Hawk 116 1140 1142 Cooper's Hawk 7 45 46 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 81 594 606 Red-tailed Hawk 0 239 279 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 6 361 369 Merlin 3 36 36 Peregrine Falcon 0 15 15 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 1 1 Total: 220 2807 2914 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Kiah Jasper Observers: Alessandra Kite, Cameron Chevalier, Chad Cornish, Jeremy Bensette, Mike Jaber, Peter Veighey Visitors: Day two of Hawkfest occurred at the park today, with many visitors checking out the vendors, food trucks and events. 175 people made the trek up the tower, so it was a bit quieter than yesterday. The people who did come up stayed for longer than those from yesterday however, enjoying the marsh birds and the flyby Sharpies, as well as our resident Bald Eagles and Osprey. The banding crew once again brought some passerines to the base of the tower for us, with the crowds enjoying nice views and photos (highlights Swainson's Thrush and Philadelphia Vireo). Thanks to Mike, Chad, Peter, Patrick, Steve, Alessandra, Jeremy, Cam and Paul for helping me with the count today. Weather: I can basically copy and paste the weather from previous days at this point... 19 Degrees C rising to 26 C in the afternoon, under 10% cloud cover all day, very light Southeast winds and a light haze in the air. Unlike yesterday we didn't even get a hint of north winds. The barometer remains just about 30.00. Raptor Observations: Quieter than yesterday, with 220 total raptors recorded. In the morning we had a few small kettles of Broad-winged Hawks lift off, but they quickly went inland and disappeared to the West. Sharp-shinned Hawk was our most numerous raptor of the day, with 166 recorded. Some of those were cooperative right over the tower, while others were barely visible specks along the far treeline. 3 Merlins were the highlight for us, always a fun species to see zipping by the tower. Non-raptor Observations: Less passerines were recorded compared with yesterday (both species and numbers), though there were still some highlights around the tower. 12 species of warbler were recorded, highlighted by Wilson's and Blackburnian. 730 Blue Jays and 195 American Goldfinches were seen migrating over the tower, as well as 1 migrant Red-headed Woodpecker mixed in with the jays. 3 Black-crowned Night Herons were spotted in the marsh today, along with several Common Gallinule and 10 species of waterfowl. Other highlights included Great Black-backed Gull, Common Nighthawks and Philadelphia Vireo. On the non bird front, several Fiery Skippers near the base of the tower were a fun highlight. 78 species were recorded from the tower today, for the full list click this eBird link https://ebird.org/checklist/S195283634 Predictions: More Southeast winds tomorrow, so I expect the flight to be quite similar to todays. ======================================================================== 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