Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 15, 2015 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 55 1157 51010 Osprey 0 1 83 Bald Eagle 4 16 187 Northern Harrier 6 94 760 Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 143 8237 Cooper's Hawk 0 11 194 Northern Goshawk 0 0 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 137 369 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 16636 Red-tailed Hawk 32 857 1650 Rough-legged Hawk 1 8 8 Golden Eagle 3 23 43 American Kestrel 0 5 1521 Merlin 0 4 62 Peregrine Falcon 0 4 48 Unknown Accipiter 1 2 18 Unknown Buteo 1 22 104 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 1 1 3 Unknown Raptor 1 1 24 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 110 2486 80960 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Jeremy Hatt Observers: Bob Hall-Brooks, Chris Craft, Jenna McDermott, John Craft, Marianne Balkwill, Michael Williamson, Urban Lundburg Visitors: A few locals visited the tower to admire the view on yet another beautiful November day. A group of seasoned hawk-watchers helped spot extremely distant raptors through scopes and provided great company. Many thanks to Marianne for helping for the duration of the count! Weather: A pleasant day on the tower w/ temperatures up to 15C in the early afternoon. Winds were out of the southwest all day and gusting up to 15km/h but lessening to under 10km/h by the afternoon. There was 0% cloud cover all day. Raptor Observations: The winds were not in our favour today! Southwest winds resulted in a flight line far north of the tower and once again, scopes were necessary for identifying distant raptors. The day started slow and ended slow w/ most of the flight occurring between the late morning and early afternoon. Despite the distance, we still managed to pick out 3 Golden Eagles and had our ID skills tested on a number of buteos (mostly Red-tailed Hawks but two Red-shouldered Hawks and one Rough-legged Hawk made an appearance). A few kettles of Turkey Vultures totaling 55 birds resulted in the highest count for one species. Near the end of the day, an extremely distant falcon was spotted but couldn't comfortably be assigned to Peregrine or Merlin. The lingering Osprey was not seen today. Non-raptor Observations: The non-raptor highlight was a first-year Franklin's Gull spotted by Marianne Reid in the morning as it flew into the marsh and joined a group of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls on a log. Unfortunately, it only stayed for about 10 minutes before taking off. Waterfowl numbers continue to be high in the marsh w/ a good diversity of species: Canada Goose - 9, Mute Swan - 71, Tundra Swan - 14, Wood Duck - 2, Gadwall - 334, American Wigeon - 10, American Black Duck - 18, Mallard - 200, Northern Shoveler - 15, Northern Pintail - 34, Green-winged Teal - 2, Ring-necked Duck - 60, Bufflehead - 13, Common Goldeneye - 2, and Ruddy Duck - 6. There were also 6 Pied-billed Grebe and about 450 American Coot in the marsh as well. Large numbers of American Goldfinch migrated past the tower throughout the day and we finished w/ a count of 624 birds. A high number of Horned Larks flew over as well totaling 604 birds. Other migrants included 66 American Crows, 6 American Robins, 117 European Starlings, 20 American Pipits, 172 Cedar Waxwings, 35 Snow Buntings, 284 Red-winged Blackbirds, 2 Common Grackles, 205 Rusty Blackbirds, 15 Brown-headed Cowbirds, 4 Purple Finches, 9 House Finches, and 47 Pine Siskins. Predictions: Quite similar to today, tomorrow is predicted to be sunny and reach 12C by the afternoon. Winds out of the south up to 15km/h. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jeremy Hatt (hattjer...@hotmail.com) Holiday Beach Conservation Area information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/ _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide