Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 27, 2025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1745 54937 57514 Osprey 0 13 43 Bald Eagle 16 295 460 Northern Harrier 7 307 743 Sharp-shinned Hawk 56 2287 7250 Cooper's Hawk 15 158 285 American Goshawk 0 1 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 45 297 297 Broad-winged Hawk 0 19 40251 Red-tailed Hawk 271 1377 1547 Rough-legged Hawk 2 7 7 Golden Eagle 2 31 32 American Kestrel 0 185 1146 Merlin 1 20 107 Peregrine Falcon 1 25 66 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 20 21 Unknown Eagle 0 2 2 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 3 3 Black Vulture 0 1 1 Total: 2161 59985 109776 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Kiah Jasper Observers: Noel Herdman Visitors: Thanks to Noel for helping out with the count in the morning. We were visited by Bill from Windor and Art from Hammond. Weather: The day started off on the cold side of things, with a moderate northeast wind and the temperature at 4C.The temperature increased to 15C by the early afternoon, though the cold wind didn't make it feel that warm on the tower. The wind stayed out of the northeast for the first 5 hours, then started shifting to the E/ESE, which seemed to kill our raptor flight. The wind changed back to NE for the last hour of the count, though it seemed to be too late at that point. The sky remained clear blue for the whole day, with a max of 10% cloud cover (never a sky a hawkwatcher loves). The barometer started at 29.72 and fell several points during the day. Raptor Observations: It turned out to be a decent day for numbers on the tower, with over 2,000 birds counted. The top spot went to Turkey Vultures (1,745) followed by Red-tailed Hawk (271). None of the other raptors made it into the triple digits today, though the 45 Red-shouldered Hawks observed were a nice additions to the lines of vultures and red-tails. The highlights today were 2 Golden Eagles and 2 Rough-legged Hawks. Non-raptor Observations: The first few hours of the morning were productive for passerine movement, with lots of finches and blackbirds streaming west by the tower. Highlights included 81 Purple Finch, 535 American Goldfinch, 45 Pine Siskins, 90 Rusty Blackbirds and 3 Eastern Meadowlarks. American Crows made a good push today, with 20,400 recorded. On the marsh 80 American White Pelicans continue to be seen, and a large number of Tree Swallows (3,500) were seen foraging over the water. Other highlights inlcude Trumpeter Swan and 3 Pectoral Sandpipers flying by. 72 species were seen from the tower today (including raptors). The list can be found at the link below: https://ebird.org/checklist/S281699086 Predictions: The wind is meant to be out of the east tomorrow, which isn't great for concentrating birds along the shoreline. That said, we should still see some movement, particularly vultures. Wednesday is looking better at the moment, with forecasted northeast winds and sunny skies. ======================================================================== 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