Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours
Official Counter: Kiah Jasper
Observers: Hugh Kent, Michael Arthurs, Mike Jaber
Visitors: Thanks to Mike A, Mike J and Hugh for helping out with the count today. We were visited briefly by Noel and Juliette, who brought us tasty home-baked snacks. We were also visited by; a Tan Jumping Spider, several Autumn Meadowhawks and a Monarch. We determined the Monarch had the best halloween costume of the day, it wasn't very spooky but at least it got the colours right.
Weather: An interesting day for weather, with the sky changing from 100% cloud cover, to mostly sunny, then back again for a lot of the day. The wind was strong (10-25kph) out of the South for the entire day, though it never got as windy as it was initially forecasted to. With dark clouds rolling off the lake throughout the day we were expecting rain, but it all seemed to pass by us and we remained dry. The temperature was warm from the start of our watch until the end, changing from 17 Degrees C to 21. The barometer fell from 29.76 to 29.67.
Raptor Observations: Another very quiet day on the raptor front, with only 2 or 3 birds recorded most hours. The bulk of our numbers came from Turkey Vultures (153), many of them circling and fighting the wind for over an hour before finally passing by. 3 Northern Harriers flew past in the morning, 2 of them nice "Grey Ghosts". We also had a single Peregrine Falcon, as well as a Merlin that caught a Tree Swallow on the wing.
Non-raptor Observations: The Strong south winds today led to lower species diversity, as well as a rather quiet morning songbird flight. When we arrived we were deafened by thousands of blackbirds calling in the trees beside the tower, mostly Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles. Over the next hour we counted at least 20,000 blackbirds flying East by the tower, our best numbers this season. 310 American White Pelicans continue to be seen in the marsh, though there could have been more out of sight. Other highlights included; 1 Orange-crowned Warbler, 1 Gray Catbird, 125 Rusty Blackbirds and our first Dunlin of the season. 58 species were identified from the tower today, for the full list click here - https://ebird.org/checklist/S200926966
In the month of October we spotted 149 species from the tower, to see that and our daily lists, click this Trip Report https://ebird.org/tripreport/288975
Predictions: Tomorrow should be much cooler than today, with a clear sky and 20kph wind from the West. These aren't ideal conditions, but hopefully we will see more of a flight than today. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Kiah Jasper (<kiahbirder...>) Holiday Beach Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/
