Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 08, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 14 149 171 Osprey 0 7 7 Bald Eagle 1 49 52 Northern Harrier 2 76 95 Sharp-shinned Hawk 23 126 128 Cooper's Hawk 0 4 5 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 284 296 Red-tailed Hawk 4 211 251 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 15 245 253 Merlin 3 11 11 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 Mississippi Kite 0 1 1 Total: 62 1172 1279 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Chip Ogglesby, Liz Kent, Mike Jaber, Paul Gosselin Visitors: Thanks to Mike, Chip and Dana and Paul for helping observing today. Nice to meet Chad and Chris from Ohio and Pam and Huw from Michigan who showed a keen interest in the hawk watch. Weather: Bright, clear day overall, with moderate wind generally from the west. Started chilly but temperature rose throughout the day to a high of 22.5c. Sky was initially clear but scattered clouds appeared in the afternoon. Raptor Observations: Quiet day with 62 raptors overall, mostly Sharp-shinned Hawks and American Kestrels. Seven species overall. Highlight of the day was watching a perched Merlin devour a hapless Tree Swallow. Non-raptor Observations: Also a quiet day for non raptors, with numbers of American Goldfinch (134) and Cedar Waxwing (38) down on previous days. Tree Swallows (416) increased with a movement west in the morning and some remaining to hawk over the marsh in the afternoon. Good to see a flight of American White Pelicans (8) over the Marsh. The list is available at https://ebird.org/checklist/S194479363 Predictions: Similar day to today but with a rise in temperature to around 26c. Likely the mix of raptors will be similar to today but hopefully the temperature will bring more thermal activity and hence more numbers, including Broad-winged Hawks. ======================================================================== 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