Holiday Beach Hawk Watch Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 03, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 768 869 4342 Osprey 0 0 26 Bald Eagle 7 9 216 Northern Harrier 13 29 610 Sharp-shinned Hawk 156 278 5712 Cooper's Hawk 5 12 124 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 1 Broad-winged Hawk 14 17 107071 Red-tailed Hawk 34 37 439 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 24 56 1425 Merlin 1 5 108 Peregrine Falcon 9 14 48 Unknown Accipitrine 0 1 2 Unknown Buteo 0 0 2 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 2 Unknown Raptor 0 0 22 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 1031 1327 120151 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Paul Gosselin Observers: Cindy Isenhoff, Cramer, Hugh Kent, Josh Chaulk, Liz Kent, Mike Jaber, Noel Herdman Visitors: Big thanks to Noel, Mike, Hugh, Liz, Cindy, Cramer, Jean and Gis for helping with the observing and counting. It was good to see a group from OFO with leader Gis on the tower. It was also good to see returning Bryan and Fran, Steve and David, Neil and Marg, Romesh and Chandra, Eva, Jean, Leanne and Doug. It was good to meet Matthew and Mariela. Everybody showed a great interest in the Hawk Watch and enjoyed their time on the Tower. Weather: Good north wind up until mid afternoon, then turned easterly. Cloud cover gradually increased. Started cool and ended up a warmer 22c. Pressure relatively high. Visibility very good. A good day for hawk watching. Raptor Observations: Turkey Vultures (768) are beginning to move, passing mostly high. Sharp-shinned Hawks (156) predictably second. News of the day was a really good total of Peregrine (9) with many of them feeding off the migrating Blue Jays. A few Broad-winged Hawk (14) stragglers appeared in the morning. Non-raptor Observations: Redhead, Dark-eyed Junco, Eastern Towhee and Field Sparrow are new for the season. Biggest Blue Jay (34,510) movement of the season with the stream going most of the day. American Pelicans delighted the crowd once again with their aerial displays. Good movement of Red-winged Blackbirds (799) early in the morning. A notable flyover of 70 Lesser Scaup together with a Redhead added to the diversity of ducks. The checklist is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S398810814 Predictions: Despite the wind moving to west south west early tomorrow we hope for a continued increase in Turkey Vulture numbers. It is likely that we will have a similar mix of raptors and probably more Blue Jays! ======================================================================== 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