Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:30:00 Total observation time: 9.5 hours
Official Counter: Kiah Jasper
Observers: Alessandra Kite, Chuck Sharbaugh, Jeremy Bensette, Juliette Herdman, Mike Jaber, Noel Herdman
Visitors: Thanks to Mike, Noel, Juliette, Alessandra, Chuck and Jeremy for helping with the count today. We were visited by Dawn from Ohio, Mike from Lakeshore, Heather and Alban from Windsor as well as Lou and Toni from Windsor.
Weather: I was happy to see the wind was coming from the Northwest when I arrived at the tower at 8am... it was very light, but the direction was good! It was a very dark and grey morning, with thick clouds above us and a thin line of blue sky above the treeline to the west. That line of blue grew gradually as the morning went on, finally clearing up to be a beautiful sunny day around 11:30. The wind remained out of the North for longer than expected given the forecast, but eventually it did shift to the South by 12:30, where it remained for the rest of the day. It was a pleasant day for temperature on the tower, starting at 9 C and rising to 15 C in the afternoon. The pressure changed only slightly, sitting close to 30.10 for most of the day.
Raptor Observations: There are a few days each season that always stand out just a bit more than the rest, when the weather is enjoyable, bird diversity is high and there's a sense of excitement in the air. Today was one of those days, definitely in my top 10 days of the season. The day started off very quiet for raptors, with only a few birds recorded per hour for the first few hours (the songbird flight made up for it though). When the clouds started to break up around 10:30 we began seeing raptors moving in numbers, though they quickly gained elevation and were very high by 11:00. Our first Golden Eagle of the day glided overhead at 11:11, followed by another ten minutes later. After 12:00 the words "there's another Golden!" became commonplace on the tower, with a new bird appearing on the horizon every 10-15 minutes. The "golden hours" continued on until almost the end of the count, though the birds grew more infrequent and distant as the afternoon went on. We ended up recording 28 Golden Eagles, the 5th highest total in the 50 years of the count. Of course on days like these the eagles are the big highlights, but there were also lots of other birds moving to keep us busy. We saw 2 Rough-legged Hawks, 1 of them a gorgeous dark morph bird. Red-tailed Hawk (340), Red-shouldered Hawk (61), Sharp-shinned Hawk and Northern Harrier were also present in good numbers. 3 Merlin were a nice treat as well, 1 to start off the day and 2 near the end.
Non-raptor Observations: The morning was very active for songbird flight on the tower, which was good timing because there weren't many raptors flying. The high cloud cover for the first several hours of the day was great to spot passing songbirds against, making counting easier. Highlights of the flight included; 323 Horned Lark, 177 Eastern Bluebird, 348 American Pipit, 4 White-winged Crossbill, 42 Purple Finch, 1,329 American Goldfinch, 3 Lapland Longspur and over 8,000 blackbirds. At least 26 American White Pelicans continue to be seen in the marsh, though much less reliably than during the past several weeks. Other highlights today included; 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 19 Great Egret and 1 Greater Yellowlegs. 76 species were observed from the tower today. HBMO eBird checklist available here https://ebird.org/checklist/S201718971
Predictions: Tomorrow is meant to be another nice, sunny day with a high of 15 C. The wind will mainly be from the West, possibly shifting Northwest later in the day. If the wind does shift to be Northerly we could see good movement. If it stays Westerly there will likely be lower numbers compared to today, but still a nice flight. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Kiah Jasper (<kiahbirder...>) Holiday Beach Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/
