Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 10, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 0 151 173 Osprey 1 8 8 Bald Eagle 1 50 53 Northern Harrier 15 92 111 Sharp-shinned Hawk 175 345 347 Cooper's Hawk 3 9 10 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 41 325 337 Red-tailed Hawk 6 218 258 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 43 295 303 Merlin 5 24 24 Peregrine Falcon 1 11 11 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: 291 1529 1636 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Liz Kent, Mike Jaber, Noel Herdman Visitors: Big thanks to Dana, Liz, Mike and Noel for helping observe together with David and Jane from Ottawa who have returned again. Nice to see Dennis again, and meet Jerry from Toronto, Jackie from Erie Wildlife Rescue, Phil and Nancy from Sarnia and Emily and Jake from Windsor who all showed a great interest in the Hawk Watch. We were happy to welcome two groups of home schooled children and their parents onto the Tower, guided by Emily of ERCA. They were able to see a number of hawks flying close to the Tower. Weather: Quite a hot day on the tower reaching 29c but cooler at start and finish. We were met with fog in the early morning and a light north wind. This cleared gradually but a haze remained in the distance all day. The wind gradually backed during the day to a light wind from the south. Light scattered clouds were present all day. Raptor Observations: Sharp-shinned Hawks (175) topped the list followed by American Kestrels (43). Most appeared in the early afternoon way off to the northeast over the trees, with the odd one or two coming above or close to the Tower. It was nice to see a tiny kettle of Broad-winged Hawks in the last hour, hopefully a foretaste of what is to come. Non-raptor Observations: A much better variety today with 13 species of warbler in the bushes around the tower, early morning. Also 2 species of Nuthatch and 3 of Vireos. A Great-crested Flycatcher was heard calling close to a couple of Red-headed Woodpeckers. Big numbers of Tree Swallows (813) were seen hawking over the marsh and some old favourites such as Sandhill Cranes (4), Trumpeter Swans (2) and Pied Billed Grebes (2) appearing again. Common Nighthawks (4) were seen in the middle of the day hawking for insects above the trees to the east. American Goldfinch (126) and Cedar Waxwing (34) numbers remained relatively low. Reasonable numbers of Monarchs (40) were seen today. The List is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S194688666 Predictions: Pretty similar day tomorrow, so we are likely to see much of the same sort of mix of Raptors. Hopefully the Broad-winged Hawks are now starting to appear in greater numbers, but the wind is not the best for us to see lots. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Hugh Kent (Hughnkent@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