Visitors: Thanks to Juliette and Noel for helping me count and bringing me snacks this morning. Karen joined me for the majority of the day and helped count and scribe. We were visited by Ian, Jan from Kortright, Christina from Chatham, Andrew from London, Mike from Kitchener and John from Essex.
Weather: It started off chilly in the morning, at 4 Degrees C with a light wind from the North. It slowly warmed up over the morning, with the temperature rising to 19 C by mid afternoon. The wind shifted West by late morning, and eventually South in the afternoon. The sky remained clear all day and the barometer held just above 30.06.
Raptor Observations: It was fairly slow on the raptor front today, well save for the Turkey Vultures (6,127) that were out in strong numbers today! My thumb is rather sore from clicking the vultures 1 by 1, but it definitely kept me busy today. In the morning the vulture flight was pleasant and directly overhead... very easy to count. In the afternoon the flight shifted to the extreme limit of binocular view inland though, and required the scope for accurate counting as they shimmered in and out of the heat haze. I decided the collective noun "vengeance" works well to describe these distant vultures. On the non vulture front the main highlight were 3 Red-shouldered Hawks, including a nice adult.
Non-raptor Observations: The Blue Jay flight was decent this morning (12,520), and there were good numbers of American Goldfinches moving (718) and Yellow-rumped Warblers (98) moving. American White Pelicans grew yet again today, with a total of 382 counted. Indigo Bunting and Brown Thrasher linger near the base of the tower. 79 species were observed today, for the full eBird list click here https://ebird.org/checklist/S198272023
Predictions: Tomorrow the wind is meant to be from the Southwest all day, so I don't expect a flight that will be as large. Birds that don't mind a headwind, such as sharpies and falcons may still be moving. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Kiah Jasper (<kiahbirder...>) Holiday Beach Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/
