Holiday Beach Conservation Area Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 30, 2015 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Turkey Vulture 20 1244 51097 Osprey 0 1 83 Bald Eagle 5 34 205 Northern Harrier 5 174 840 Sharp-shinned Hawk 10 186 8280 Cooper's Hawk 5 31 214 Northern Goshawk 0 0 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 26 238 470 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 16636 Red-tailed Hawk 376 1993 2786 Rough-legged Hawk 2 23 23 Golden Eagle 0 36 56 American Kestrel 0 5 1521 Merlin 0 6 64 Peregrine Falcon 0 7 51 Unknown Accipiter 3 6 22 Unknown Buteo 1 25 107 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 1 3 Unknown Raptor 0 1 24 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 453 4011 82485 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:15:00 Total observation time: 8.25 hours Official Counter: Jenna McDermott Observers: Larry Ludwicki, Michael Williamson Visitors: Lynn and Ed visited on their daily morning walk. Weather: The NE winds continued all day again, staying around 9kph and gusting to 17kph. Temperatures started at just below freezing and reached a high of 7C before it started dropping in the afternoon again. There was no cloud cover in the morning but perfect wispy clouds, great for spotting, started appearing around midday and by the end, cloud cover was 80%. Raptor Observations: If there was ever a perfect day for hawkwatching at our site, this was it. Almost all of the birds flew directly overhead, or a tiny bit south of the tower, they stayed at a low enough altitude that they were visible without binoculars much of the time, and the sky was great for picking out hawks. Red-tailed Hawks kept up the good numbers of the weekend; at times there were kettles of 35 visible in the sky at a time. Red-shouldered Hawks almost reached 30 birds and interspersed themselves amongst the Red-tails. 5 immature Bald Eagles powered past the tower, along with 5 Northern Harriers, 10 Sharpies, 5 Coops. The Red-tailed Hawks were really taking their time leaving the area and hovered around overhead sometimes for five minutes, but the 20 Turkey Vultures that passed were really on a mission. Two Rough-legged Hawks also appeared close to the tower; one light and one dark-morph. Non-raptor Observations: One lone Sandhill Crane flew in from the east in the morning and a few hours later a small formation of 12 Sandhills followed the same path, vocalizing a little bit. American Crows carried on with some decent numbers (890), and American Goldfinches were also abundant with 319. Red-winged Blackbird, Snow Bunting, Cedar Waxwing, European Starling, Horned Lark, and Blue Jay also migrated, but in much smaller numbers. See today's eBird list http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S26073862 Predictions: Back to south component winds tomorrow, with a 70% chance of rain until the afternoon. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jenna McDermott (jmcde...@alumni.uoguelph.ca) 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
