Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 23, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 2705 66911 70384 Osprey 0 4 30 Bald Eagle 8 132 339 Northern Harrier 21 477 1058 Sharp-shinned Hawk 106 3074 8508 Cooper's Hawk 14 200 312 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 38 329 330 Broad-winged Hawk 0 53 107107 Red-tailed Hawk 264 1615 2017 Rough-legged Hawk 0 6 6 Golden Eagle 5 30 30 American Kestrel 12 855 2224 Merlin 0 49 152 Peregrine Falcon 0 47 81 Unknown Accipitrine 0 4 5 Unknown Buteo 0 9 11 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 1 3 Unknown Raptor 0 4 26 Black Vulture 0 1 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 3173 73801 192625 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 8.5 hours Official Counter: Kiah Jasper, Michael Burton-Smith Observers: Bryan Girling, Fran, Hugh Kent, Juliette Herdman, Kiah Jasper, Liz Kent, Noel Herdman, Peter Veighey, Robin Smallwood Visitors: Thanks to Kiah, Noel, Juliette, Hugh, Liz, Robin, Peter, Fran and Bryan for helping conduct today's count and for making it such an enjoyable day on the tower. It was lovely to be visited by Fred, Toni, Lou, Christine, Bob, Julie, Jim, Sue, Greg, Emily and Brian, most of whom were able to see the tower after the mist had risen. Weather: It was incredibly foggy throughout the morning with visibility limited to just a few hundred feet (if you want to recreate the experience, grab a blank sheet of paper, tape it to your face, and sit in the fridge for four hours). North winds gave way to mild south-westerlies in the early afternoon, with temperatures peaking in the high teens. Raptor Observations: If yesterday's pace was slow, this morning's raptor migration was positively glacial. In the first three hours of counting, just four birds were recorded passing through the mist. As soon as the fog lifted, however, things really got moving. Five Golden Eagle in the early afternoon were the crowd pleasers, but the keenest clickers had another species front of mind - the Turkey Vulture. Unlike Broad-winged Hawk, which migrate in massive numbers in a very narrow window, Turkey Vultures migrate in a steady flow throughout mid-fall, and over the past week we have seen their numbers push closer and closer to the all-time record for Holiday Beach. By 1400 local time we had overtaken 2021 and 2024 to claim second place, and all eyes were on 2023's total of 70,157. With one hour left on the clock, we needed just 721 more to claim the title, but trawling through the sky there was not a kettle in sight. Minutes which felt like an eternity passed before a group of 150 finally appeared. Moments later another gang passed by. We were closing in! Then, emerging from Kiah's Tall Tree in a long swirling stream were hundreds of Turkeys intent on migrating west. This was going to get us close! My clicker finger fired off three hundred times. My heart began to race. We were so close, until Liz made my heart sink by asking, "What are all these birds flying back?" Nearly every single vulture had turned around. It seems that, much like us, they were experiencing a crisis of democracy, with their new leader a little confused about the precise location of the Detroit River. Fortunately, in a coup which single handedly saved our season total, the lead vulture was overthrown and one by one they turned around and set off in the right direction. I kept on clicking. The countdown started. The whole tower chanted: "Ten, nine, eight..." You would think Canada had just hit the back of the net in the FIFA World Cup Final as the Holiday Beach marsh echoed with our cheers. Our record year continues, with the highest count of Turkey Vultures in 52 years of the HBMO Hawk Count. Our next goal? 200,000 raptors for the season. Non-raptor Observations: The day's eBird checklist can be viewed at https://ebird.org/checklist/S404821180. The heavy fog over Trout Pond created perfect conditions for a brand new game called "Guess if that is a stick or a turtle?" Noel proved to be particularly good at this. In a world where we could barely see beyond our nose, the tick-ticking of an angry Winter Wren was reassuring confirmation that we still shared the planet with other living creatures. In the afternoon, two late Blackpoll Warblers and a Red-headed Woodpecker were pleasant reminders of warmer times, and our strong season for American Golden Plover continues with three seen through the day. Predictions: Changeable wind makes the raptor migration difficult to predict, but hopefully we will see Turkey Vultures and our mid-fall Buteos continue their migration with clear skies creating thermals for them in the afternoon. The gentle northerly and clear skies early in the night may also bring in new waterfowl and songbirds around the tower. ======================================================================== 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