Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 14:15:00 Total observation time: 7.25 hours
Official Counter: Kiah Jasper
Observers: Alessandra Kite, Daniel Lee, Michelle Mastellotto, Mike Jaber, Noel Herdman
Visitors: Thanks to Alessandra, Noel, Daniel, Mike and Michelle for stopping in to help out with the count today. Noel and Daniel both brought hot chocolate today, which is always welcomed by the hawk counter.
Weather: Today was a bit windy up on the tower, with a westerly wind gusting over 30kph during some points of the day. The wind shifted to the WSW a few times and briefly gained a northerly component late in the morning, though that didn't last for long. The temperature started at 5C and increased to 12C by the afternoon, though it often felt colder with the windchill. The sky was mainly overcast today, clearing up for a brief period between 11:30am and 1:30pm. That led to an increase of raptors, but before 2pm dark clouds rolled in and shut things down. The pressure remained near 29.74. The count was ended 45 minutes early today because only 3 raptors were seen between 2-3pm and the condidtions were not improving.
Raptor Observations: Despite the west wind it turned out to be a decent day for raptor migration, with just shy of 300 birds recorded. Turkey Vultures took the top spot with 160, followed by Red-tailed Hawk at 68. Northern Harriers trickled by throughout the day, with a total of 14 seen. Highlights today included a Rough-legged Hawk late in the day, 2 Merlin and 1 Peregrine Falcon. The flight line was mostly far inland today, making spotting birds a bit more of a challenge.
Non-raptor Observations: Today was fantastic for morning songbird flight, which kept us entrained for the first few hours of the watch. Often these West wind days lead to strong numbers of certain species including finches and waxwings, and that was certainly the case today. Highlights of the morning included our largest Cedar Waxwing flight of the season (1,832), as well as strong numbers of Purple Finch (166), American Goldfinch (762) and Pine Siskin (58). American Robins made their first large push of the season, with 871 recorded. The highlight bird of today was a male Evening Grosbeak, which flew west overhead around 12:30. This species is an irruptive migrant and doesn't leave the boreal forest every year, this was the first sighting at the hawk tower since 2022. Diving ducks have begun to arrive on Lake Erie in large numbers, with at least 6,000 Aythya sp. (scaup or Redhead) passing by today. Unfortunately they were much too far out to identify to species. Several groups of Canvasback flew over the tower in the morning, our first ones of the season. Large numbers of American White Pelicans were seen today on the marsh, with a maximum of 185 seen in the afternoon. 70 species were observed from the tower today, for the eBird list click the link below: https://ebird.org/checklist/S282217876
This October 141 species were seen from the tower, you can view the HBMO trip report on this eBird link - https://ebird.org/tripreport/426665
Predictions: Tomorrow is meant to be a cooler, overcast day with a daily high of 10C. There is a chance for the sun to come out midday, which could encourage some raptors to move. The wind is meant to be light out of the West, which isn't ideal for our site, though some birds should still be moving (they may just be further inland, like they were today). ======================================================================== Report submitted by Kiah Jasper (<kiahbirder...>) Holiday Beach Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/
