Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 04, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 616 1485 4958 Osprey 0 0 26 Bald Eagle 0 9 216 Northern Harrier 21 50 631 Sharp-shinned Hawk 106 384 5818 Cooper's Hawk 0 12 124 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 1 Broad-winged Hawk 2 19 107073 Red-tailed Hawk 6 43 445 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 8 64 1433 Merlin 2 7 110 Peregrine Falcon 1 15 49 Unknown Accipitrine 0 1 2 Unknown Buteo 2 2 4 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 2 Unknown Raptor 0 0 22 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 764 2091 120915 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Paul Gosselin Observers: Corinne Allsop, Daniel Lee, Hugh Kent, Ian Woodfield, Jaron Wilkinson, Kory Renaud, Liz Kent, Matt Brannagan, Mike Jaber, Noel Herdman, Robin Smallwood Visitors: Big thank you to Noel, Mike, Jaron, Daniel, Corinne, Matt, Hugh, Liz, Kory, Robin and Ian for helping with observing and counting. It was good to see Russ, Mike M, Cheryl, Sheila, Marianne and Ralph again. It was good to meet Carl and Charlie for the first time, hope to see you again. We had many other visitors who were also interested in the Count and the birds on the marsh, especially the Pelicans! Weather: Bright with comfortable temperature, which rose to 24c by the end of the day. Short rain shower early on. Light wind started in the north and soon turned south. Visibility good with pressure falling slightly throughout day. Raptor Observations: Turkey vultures (616) were mainly seen to the north and Sharp-shinned Hawks (106) came through sporadically throughout the day. There were a reasonable number of Northern Harriers (21) mostly passing near the Tower. All other raptors were in low numbers. Non-raptor Observations: Blue Jay numbers (16,000) dropped from yesterday, but the big story of the day was the biggest number so far of American Pelicans (925) who spent the morning fishing on the marsh. Lots of Ring-billed Gulls (88) swirled around the Pelicans hoping for fish scraps. Cedar Waxwings (77) and American Goldfinches (213) were less, but we still had a good variety of warblers with 7 species. Good numbers of Rusty Blackbirds (54) were seen in the morning. There was an upswing of Monarch Butterflies with 48 seen. The list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S399252028 Predictions: North west winds are forecast for tomorrow, so hopefully the will be more raptors all round. Will the American Pelicans continue to be seen in big numbers? ======================================================================== Report submitted by Paul Gosselin (paulgosselin25@hotmail.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