Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 14, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 8140 30560 34033 Osprey 0 4 30 Bald Eagle 20 52 259 Northern Harrier 107 310 891 Sharp-shinned Hawk 529 1627 7061 Cooper's Hawk 18 71 183 American Goshawk 15 15 15 Red-shouldered Hawk 18 18 19 Broad-winged Hawk 7 37 107091 Red-tailed Hawk 44 150 552 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 516 757 2126 Merlin 5 30 133 Peregrine Falcon 3 39 73 Unknown Accipitrine 0 1 2 Unknown Buteo 1 3 5 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 1 3 Unknown Raptor 0 3 25 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 9423 33678 152502 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Michael Burton-Smith Observers: Hugh Kent, Liz Kent, Michael St. Pierre, Noel Herdman, Paul Gosselin, Peter Veighey, Robin Smallwood Visitors: Thanks to Hugh, Liz, Peter, Robin, Mike and Noel for helping conduct the day's count. An extra special thank you (and likely much-needed thumb and eye surgery) to our Turkey Vulture Counter-in-Chief, Paul, who did the lion's share of clicking today. It was great to be visited by Bob, Julie, Brad, Brandi and Amelia who got to share in the overhead delights. Weather: The forecast didn't entirely come to fruition, with more rain overnight than expected continuing into the early morning, leading to a very overcast start to the day. Things remained chilly and gray until the early afternoon, when the sun finally beamed through and created some nice thermal uplifts. Steady northerly winds, increasing in the afternoon, and temperatures in the upper-teens. Raptor Observations: In the early morning, gray skies and a chill in the breeze seemed to be a boot in the rear for Northern Harriers, Sharp-shinned Hawks and American Kestrel, with all three moving by in good numbers. Kestrel in particular were notable, with between 100 and 150 passing by each hour around midday. Despite the commotion in the skies above, there was still a sense of futility about another day without Buteos. Then, when the sun broke through and the winds began to increase, everything changed in an instant. Kestrels almost completely dried up and Turkey Vultures ominously emerged from the forest to our north. First in tens, then in hundreds, then in thousands. I am sure I wasn't the only one humming John Williams' "Imperial March" as they streamed by! Among them were a handful of late Broad-wings and Red-tails and then, divinely, finally, a Red-shouldered Hawk! One turned into two which turned into five, and before long they were a regular presence in the skies above. The curse has been broken! No Bolden Sneagles, however. Today's count broke a number of records. Most significantly, we have smashed the record for most raptors recorded in a single season in HBMO history, surpassing 150,000 birds for the season so far! We also snuck past 22 October 2024 for the tenth best Turkey Vulture day on record, and placed our sixth best ever day total for Northern Harrier. What a day! Non-raptor Observations: The day's eBird checklist can be viewed at https://ebird.org/checklist/S402359680. The big story for non-raptors was the overhead passage of our diurnal passerine migrants, with American Goldfinch (717) and Blue Jay (10710) in good numbers and our first sizeable counts of American Pipit (187) and Pine Siskin (63). The clear skies early last night corresponded with a slight change in waterfowl, with around three-hundred Ring-necked Ducks departing and increases in Gadwall (182) and Northern Shoveler (34). Around the tower we had a great little group of Golden-crowned Kinglet and good views of Swamp Sparrow. We also had a late Eastern Wood-Pewee, one Ruby-throated Hummer and a brief sighting of an American Beaver. If you are a fan of European Starlings I recommend getting to Holiday Beach as soon as you can, with 10890 swarming to the north of the marsh. Predictions: We will probably see a bit of a flip in the script tomorrow, with clear skies and a northerly wind in the morning turning south-east and cloudy in the afternoon. Hopefully we will see a nice bunch of Turkey Vultures waking up and making the most of those morning thermals, before things quiet down 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