Holiday Beach Conservation Area
Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 15, 2015
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
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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
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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.
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Report submitted by Jeremy Hatt (hattjer...@hotmail.com)
Holiday Beach Conservation Area information may be found at:
http://hbmo.ca/
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