Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 13, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 46 223 223 Osprey 1 18 18 Bald Eagle 24 39 39 Northern Harrier 12 75 75 Sharp-shinned Hawk 157 1298 1298 Cooper's Hawk 3 30 30 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 13751 14208 14208 Red-tailed Hawk 8 39 39 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 34 303 303 Merlin 2 43 43 Peregrine Falcon 0 9 9 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 Total: 14038 16285 16285 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Larry Ludwicki, Liz Kent, Peter Veighey, Susan Weaver Visitors: It was great to have the support of Larry, Peter and Sue as spotters. You were truly needed today. It was good to meet Joel from upstate New York visiting Holiday Beach on a road trip. It was nice to see Laura and Jessica from ERCA on the Tower, hope to see more of you both. It was also good to meet Eric, Marilyn from Ohio and Steve from north of Detroit and Pearl and Rod. Everybody enjoyed the Broad wing migration spectacle. Weather: A moderate wind from the north until early afternoon which then switched to south west. Temperature was in the mid teens during the morning, but as soon as the wind shifted increased to mid twenties. The sky was clear initially, by mid morning there was a good amount of scattered clouds. Visibility was good all day. Raptor Observations: The day was definitely owned by Broad-winged Hawks which started mid morning to pass by in good numbers, kettling and streaming over the tower and just to the north. Numbers peaked late morning at 5055 in an hour and then over 1000 per hour thereafter until the last hour. Truly a sight to behold with the total ending at 13751. Other Raptors came along with the Broad wings, with Sharp-shinned Hawks (157) leading the rest of the pack. Ten species were seen. Non-raptor Observations: Pretty standard day with 47 species seen. Palm Warbler was new for the season. Good numbers of Monarch Butterfly (43) passed the Tower, some at quite a height. The list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S149825427 Predictions: A sunny day is forecast for tomorrow with the wind light from the south. So Broad wings will be more to the north, so we expect reduced numbers from today. More likely we will resort to the normal fare of Sharp-shinned Hawks and American Kestrels. ======================================================================== 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