Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 11, 2012 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 1805 9554 12256 Osprey 1 10 76 Bald Eagle 2 17 115 Northern Harrier 8 61 296 Sharp-shinned Hawk 168 1025 4347 Cooper's Hawk 4 71 217 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 7 19 Broad-winged Hawk 0 72 6033 Red-tailed Hawk 6 86 361 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 1 3 5 American Kestrel 34 110 865 Merlin 5 14 66 Peregrine Falcon 5 17 42 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 8 Unknown Buteo 0 1 4 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Raptor 0 0 5 Black Vulture 0 0 1 Gyrfalcon 0 1 1 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 2039 11050 24719 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 7.75 hours Official Counter: Jeremy Hatt Observers: Claude Radley, Frank Dolby, Todd Pepper Visitors: Two groups visited the tower today. Wendy and Lou from Kingsville with a guest from British Columbia, and Cory and Shawn from Guelph, who I thank for spotting the Golden Eagle first! Thank you Claude Radley and Frank Dolby for bringing up 2 newly banded Sharp-shinned Hawks and 1 Cooper's Hawk to the tower to show me their release. Great experience. Weather: Winds in the range of 12 to 20 km/hr blew steadily throughout the day from the southwest. Very few clouds. Temperatures were between 7C - 16C. Raptor Observations: Despite the southwest winds, today was quite productive on the tower with the highlight being a close juvenile Golden Eagle in the final hour of the day. More falcons were on the move today as well with 30 American Kestrels, 4 Merlins, and 4 Peregrine Falcons flying through. Turkey Vultures continue to migrate in good numbers with a total of 1,805 counted. 168 Sharp-shinned Hawks were counted. A total of 2,039 birds of 11 species were counted. Non-raptor Observations: Tree Swallows continue to move through with a total of 36 counted over the marsh. Not as many Chimney Swifts flying as yesterday but 9 were still seen from the tower. A total of 2,918 European Starlings were counted coming over in large groups and 3,710 Blue Jays were tallied. Others counts: American Goldfinch - 251, Blackbird sp. - 810, Pine Siskin - 55. Predictions: The weather calls for sunny conditions with northwest winds between 15 - 20 km/hr winds. Temperature will range from 4C - 11C. The last two days have seen a lot of birds moving over the tower during south and southwest winds so with northwest winds tomorrow (the best conditions for Holiday Beach), the day should be quite good. Expect a similar number (perhaps more) of Turkey Vultures to fly through, a good number of Sharp-shinned Hawks and American Kestrels, and perhaps more Red-tailed Hawks. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jeremy Hatt (hattjer...@hotmail.com) Holiday Beach Migration Observatory information may be found at: http://hbmo.org/ _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
