Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 26, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 73 544 566 Osprey 0 20 20 Bald Eagle 4 117 120 Northern Harrier 46 303 322 Sharp-shinned Hawk 245 3589 3591 Cooper's Hawk 9 73 74 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 464 3373 3385 Red-tailed Hawk 4 280 320 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 239 990 998 Merlin 0 47 47 Peregrine Falcon 4 33 33 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: 1088 9370 9477 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:30:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9.5 hours Official Counter: Kiah Jasper Observers: Alessandra Kite, Chad Cornish, Chip Ogglesby, Chuck Sharbaugh, Hugh Kent, Mike Jaber, Noel Herdman Visitors: Big thanks to all my fellow counters, especially those who dedicated hours to clicking Blue Jays :) Mike, Noel, Hugh, Chad, Chuck, Alessandra and Chip joined me for various parts of the day. Andy and Carole visited from Michigan, Steve and Marion returned for another day (visiting from the UK). We were also joined by Neil for a lot of the day. Weather: I arrived at the site just before 07:00 and felt a nice Northeast wind in my face... a good start! The temperature for the morning could be described as hoodie weather, with the North wind, dark sky and cooler temperatures (17C starting off) putting a chill in the air. We were hoping the clouds would clear as the day progressed, but it only grew more overcast, from 50% to 90% by 15:00. For most of the day we could see a blue sliver of sky to the North, taunting us. The wind decreased in speed a bit during the day (18kph - 5kph), but remained out of the Northeast/North for the duration. The barometer rose from 29.84 to 29.88. Raptor Observations: We were hoping for a large Broad-winged Hawk movement, but it wasn't meant to happen it seems. The cloud cover may have hurt things (less thermals and maybe birds above the clouds), or maybe the big numbers have already passed. We did have a nice end to the day for them though, with 333 seen during our last hour, some in low kettles. Besides the lower than expected Broad-wing numbers, it was a good day for hawkwatching with over 1000 raptors recorded. Highlights were strong numbers of American Kestrel (239) and Northern Harrier (46), as well as 4 Peregrine Falcons, always a fun species to see. Non-raptor Observations: Over 100 species on the tower today! It was a big day on the non raptor front, with the first few hours of daylight keeping us very, very busy! There was a large increase in passerines overnight (sparrows/thrushes/warblers) due to the first favorable migration conditions in several days. when I arrived at the tower I was greeted by the calls of many thrushes and White-throated Sparrows, as well as the first Golden-crowned Kinglets of the season. Morning songbird flight started off fairly quiet, but then the Blue Jays started pouring through in the thousands after 08:30. After that we had a near constant stream passing by for the next 2 hours, with flocks of warblers mixed in with them. Warblers started dying off around 11:00, but jays continued to pass by in smaller numbers for the rest of the day. In the end we recorded 72,100 Blue Jays, a very good count for our site! We also recorded over 300 warblers of 18 species, many flying overhead during the morning. American Goldfinch also had a strong day, with 1,173 seen passing by. There were many highlights and I recommend checking out the eBird list for the full tally, but some notable ones included; 3 American White Pelicans, 7 American Pipits, 2 Indigo Buntings, 1 Bobolink, 2 Orange-crowned Warblers, 3 Red-headed Woodpeckers, 15 Pectoral Sandpipers and 1 Black-bellied Plovers, We saw 103 species from the tower today (!!), our highest total for the season so far. Click the link below to see the full eBird list https://ebird.org/checklist/S196572773 Predictions: Tomorrow the winds are predicted to be stronger in the morning (gusts of 30kph), increasing in strength as the day goes on. Winds aloft will be mainly out of the East and very strong, associated with the edge of Hurricane Helene system moving towards the Great Lakes. The sky is anticipated to be mainly clear. It's hard to say how productive it will be for raptors, but I expect some birds to be moving in the morning. ======================================================================== 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