Holiday Beach Hawk Watch
Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 26, 2019
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Turkey Vulture 61 367 367
Osprey 2 24 24
Bald Eagle 6 91 91
Northern Harrier 21 168 168
Sharp-shinned Hawk 312 2071 2071
Cooper's Hawk 8 53 53
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0
Broad-winged Hawk 10 24812 24812
Red-tailed Hawk 5 136 136
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 273 1015 1015
Merlin 12 68 68
Peregrine Falcon 1 13 13
Unknown Accipiter 0 2 2
Unknown Buteo 0 1 1
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 4 4
Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1
Total: 711 28826 28826
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 9 hours
Official Counter: Maryse Gagne
Observers: Dan Lumm, Elizabeth Kent, Hugh Kent, Jeremy Bensette,
Jim McCoy, Larry Ludwicki
Visitors:
Thank you to all who came to visited us today, we really appreciated your
help spotting Sharp-shinned Hawks and Kestrels out of the sky.
Thank you to Mary and Ron from Oklahoma, Linda and Margo and their family
from Alberta, Sue and Cliff from Peterborough, Shawn Brown from Ridgeway,
the Resas family from Edmonton and the grade 11 biology class from the
Maranatha Christian Academy in Windsor who came by to practice their bird
ID skills.
Also thank you to Dan, Larry, Jim, Noel and Juliette and Jeremy.
Lastly, thanks to Chris and Chip for bringing us an adult Sharp-shinned
Hawk, a male Kestrel and a male Merlin for us to release and adopt. We wish
them well on their migration!
Weather:
We had a very pleasant day on the tower with temperatures rising to the mid
20 degrees Celsius with good cloud cover in the morning and clear blue
skies in the afternoon. The wind was blowing quite strongly from the West
most of the day, switching slightly to the West-North-West for some part of
the afternoon.
Raptor Observations:
What a good day for us with a daily total of 711 raptors! Many highlights
but the best one was counting 12 Merlins! We also counted all three species
of falcons; Merlins, Kestrels and one Peregrine falcon to top it off.
As usual we had high numbers of Sharp-shinned Hawks (312) and American
Kestrels (273).
Our other highlight was 21 Northern Harriers, one of which was a beautiful
male gray ghost.
Non-raptor Observations:
Once again, a little bit slower for non-raptor species.
We are counting many ducks on the marsh, with Widgeons, Mallards,
Blue-winged Teals, Gadwalls, and Pintails.
In the afternoon, the Tree Swallows came out onto the marsh to feed and we
ended up with a daily count of 241.
Lastly, the Blue Jays are slowly starting to move, every day we are
counting more, but we are still waiting for the big movements.
Wood Duck: 26
Gadwall: 3
Blue-winged Teal: 5
Northern Pintail: 5
American Widgeon: 77
Mallards: 156
American Coot: 237
Blue Jay: 142
Tree Swallow: 241
American Goldfinch: 104
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60134447
Predictions:
Tomorrow, we are expecting a nice day but with mild winds coming from the
South. Our day might not be as exciting as today but we are hoping for more
Sharp-shinned hawks, Kestrels and maybe more Northern Harriers.
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Report submitted by Maryse Gagne (maryse.gagn...@gmail.com)
Holiday Beach Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://hbmo.ca/
More site information at hawkcount.org:
http://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=100
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