Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 17, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 32 210 232 Osprey 2 12 12 Bald Eagle 10 70 73 Northern Harrier 3 159 178 Sharp-shinned Hawk 80 1325 1327 Cooper's Hawk 2 49 50 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 766 1390 1402 Red-tailed Hawk 7 248 288 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 2 376 384 Merlin 1 38 38 Peregrine Falcon 2 17 17 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: 907 3895 4002 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Hugh Kent Observers: Andrew Fix, Chad Cornish, Liz Kent, Mike Jaber, Patrick Tomlinson, Peter Veighey, Steve Wagner Visitors: Big thanks to all the observers today helping to spot the distant raptors - Andy, Chad, Liz, Mike, Patrick, Peter and Steve. It was good to see Dennis on the Tower and to meet Jack from Pennsylvania, Tracey and Jim who were lucky to see the Broad-winged Hawk kettles. Good to talk with Lori and Jim from Brantford who were very interested in the Hawk Watch. Weather: The wind started light from the north east and then shifted to the south east around midday. The temperature rose from 18c to end at 27c, giving us a hot afternoon. The cloud cover never rose above 20%, and the visibility stayed good with gradually falling pressure. Raptor Observations: At last we observed some reasonably sized Broad-winged Hawk (766) kettles brought in on the northern aspect of the wind appearing high to the north east. The majority were seen in the third hour. Sharp-shinned Hawks (80) mostly came past in the morning and Turkey Vultures (32) are beginning to get the migration bug. Eleven species were seen with low numbers of the 3 falcons. Non-raptor Observations: Blue Jays are also beginning to increase with 6620 seen today, mostly in the morning. Good numbers of Tree Swallow (490) were seen hawking on the marsh, but songbird numbers were low with only 88 American Goldfinch passing by. Seven warbler species were seen around the Tower. A Little Gull was spotted amongst a large flock of Bonaparte's Gull (246) hawking for insects over the trees to the north east. The list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S195517562 Predictions: Tomorrow will be similar to today with a slight north aspect to the wind for the first part of the morning. The mix will probably be similar, but the big question will be how many Broad-wings may appear. ======================================================================== 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