Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 24, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 12 1104 59087 Osprey 0 1 44 Bald Eagle 0 94 570 Northern Harrier 3 153 924 Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 279 7556 Cooper's Hawk 1 109 405 American Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 159 481 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 40251 Red-tailed Hawk 3 1419 3070 Rough-legged Hawk 0 17 26 Golden Eagle 0 50 82 American Kestrel 0 1 1148 Merlin 2 25 135 Peregrine Falcon 0 13 80 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 21 Unknown Eagle 0 0 2 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 3 Black Vulture 0 0 1 Total: 25 3424 113887 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:30:00 Observation end time: 13:45:00 Total observation time: 6.25 hours Official Counter: Kiah Jasper Observers: Juliette Herdman, Mike Jaber, Noel Herdman Visitors: Thanks to Mike, Noel and Juliette for helping out with the count today. Linda and Lisa also stopped by for a bit in the morning. We were visited by Lou, Tony and Jim from Windsor. Weather: Dawn on the tower was calm and cold, only a hint of East wind and the temperature below the freezing mark at -2C. A light frost coated the tower, making the floorboards slippery when moving around. The sky started off relatively clear, though wispy cirrus clouds soon began to move in and were covering the sky by mid morning. The wind shifted from the East to the Southeast/South for the remainder of the day, increasing in speed moderately in the afternoon. The cirrus clouds prevented the surface from heating up too much today, adding their classic sun-shade effect. A lower and darker layer of clouds moved in during the early afternoon, making the sky even darker (“ugly” was Juliette’s description of it). The sky displayed several interesting spectacles today, such as a “sun dog” and a sun halo later in the day. Raptor Observations: The final week of the hawkwatch is upon us now, though it looks like we may not be going out with the massive raptor flight of our dreams. The bar is very low this week due to the unfavourable winds and forecasted precipitation, and today was no exception. Given that, today was a great day at the Hawkwatch with 25 birds observed! It’s easy to exceed expectations when the bar is low. Turkey Vulture was our most common bird today at 12, followed by a three-way tie between Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Harrier and Sharp-shinned Hawk, at 3 a piece. 2 Merlin and 1 nice adult Red-shouldered Hawk were nice highlights. The count was ended early today because there were no raptors seen for the final hour and a half and conditions were worsening. We sympathize with Detroit River Hawkwatch, who recorded only a single raptor today. That easily could have been our fate today, and it may be later this week. Non-raptor Observations: The cool morning, combined with poor winds and high humidity seems to shut down the majority of the songbird flight today. American Goldfinch (651) and Cedar Waxwing (107) were some of the only birds moving today, and both didn’t really start going through until after 09.00. Small numbers of Purple Finch (6), Lapland Longspur (1), Snow Bunting (2) and American Pipit (8) were some highlights on the songbird migration front. Lake Erie was extremely quiet today, the ever present rafts of ducks that forever remain on the horizon line didn’t even make an appearance to torment me. Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye and a few Red-breasted Merganser were the only signs of life out there. On the marsh Mute Swan (24) have increased again, after being present in low numbers since the marsh froze briefly earlier in the month. This is an unwelcome change, since this is an invasive species here. Duck numbers remain fairly consistent, with the bulk of ducks on the marsh being either Ring-necked Duck (1,236), Mallard (1,250) and Gadwall (1,850). A single Great Egret continues to linger at the back of the marsh. eBird list available here - https://ebird.org/checklist/S285994332 Predictions: Tomorrow it is meant to be overcast all day, with southeast wind and a high chance of precipitation from the morning all the way through the afternoon. These are very poor conditions for our site, and it is unlikely many birds will be moving. ======================================================================== 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