Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours
Official Counter: Michael Burton-Smith
Observers: Hugh Kent, John Winebrenner, Kate Fairbairn, Kiah Jasper, Lisa Silvey, Mike Jaber, Robin Smallwood
Visitors: Thanks to Mike, Hugh, Kiah, Robin, Lisa, John and Kate for your help conducting today's "count." It was great to be joined by Tyler and Emily for much of the day's birding, and to talk to Emily and her classes of 6, 7 and 8th graders from AV Grahm. This is our last school group for the year, and we are incredibly grateful to Emily and the ERCA education team for all they have done to inspire the next generation of hawk watchers!
Weather: The forecast cloud cover and rain did not come to fruition, with clear skies, mild southerly winds with temperatures climbing to the early twenties.
Raptor Observations: For those of us refreshing our phones for updates on Australia v South Africa in the cricket, today's dearth of raptors was a welcome relief. For anybody else hoping to see migrating hawks over the tower, it was nothing but an empty sky of misery, devastation and despair. Remarkably, we were even skunked for an hour in the late morning, and the smattering of Turkey Vulture and Red-tailed Hawk that did finally appear around midday were little more than distant, hazy lines.
The dawn sky was a thick soup as 20,000 Common Grackles left their roost on the northern edge of the marsh. They proceeded to join Eurasian Starlings and Red-winged Blackbird to descend on the tower in a scene of Hitchcockian proportions. For ten or so minutes we were engulfed in twitters as the starlings wheeled around us to bathe en masse in the pond.
As forecast, the visibility over the lake this morning did give some promising moments for open-water ducks, but unfortunately the Aythya remained too distant for any definitive views, and a cluster of all-dark scoters zipped by too quickly for a confident identification. On the marsh we had a little more reward for our effort, with the season's first Hooded Merganser (species number 187 for 2026!), as well as a stunning male Mallard x American Black Duck.
Predictions: With winds from the north overnight, fingers and toes are tightly crossed for more winter migrants to replace the dwindling numbers of sparrows and warbler around the tower. During the day, moderate north winds and patches of sunshine will hopefully create the perfect conditions for what we're dubbing "The Big Push" - a surge in Turkey Vultures and late autumn hawks to get us over the magic number of 200,000 raptors for 2026. Can the forecast come true and make tomorrow a date that will live on in HBMO history? Join us tomorrow to find out! ======================================================================== Report submitted by Michael Burton-Smith () Holiday Beach Hawk Watch information may be found at: http://hbmo.ca/
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