Season Sharpshinned Hawk Record Set...109 raptors

Today was a good day. Winds were right all day long,despite a few short spits of rain. Things did shut down early by 2pm birds had stopped moving. Walter and I hung in until about 4pm and called it quits. Before the day was done though another record fell. We recorded our 2692nd Sharpshinned Hawk among the 53 Sharpshinned Hawks that we saw today,bringing our season total to 2715 which breaks our previous season high of 2691.

We saw 3 Merlins today,this brings the season total to an incredible 80 sightings. This one even co-operated for a photo.
We had a small group of Redtails pass over,as the colour on my monitor is messed up I though we had something different,but Walter assures me this is 3 Redtailed Hawks.

Our total today was 109 raptors consisting of:

9-Turkey Vulture

1-Bald Eagle(2:10pm a juvenile..thanks for confirmation Jean)

9-Northern Harrier(one spotted by watcher Terry age 89)

53-Sharpshinned Hawk

1-Coopers Hawk

1-Northern Goshawk

30-Redtailed Hawk(including a kettle of 6)

1-American Kestrel

3-Merlin

1-Peregrine Falcon

Murray spotted a Peregerine Falcon in its popular perch on the watertower at Warden and Eglinton.(not the one we counted) We are now only 77 raptors away from a new season high total! I suspect we could pass that total tomorrow. Lets hope so!

We saw this Pine Siskin today. Thanks for spotting it Bill! Thanks to everyone for their contributions today..Hugh,Bill,Terry,Berle,Jean,Carol and of course Walter! Tomorrow looks like great conditions again. If you are coming PLEASE dress very warm...morning they are predicting a windchill below 0c,with a high of only 9c. Its better to be over-dressed then to be uncomfortably cold. It is no fun I have done it before! While there may be some upflight tomorrow,please be aware that flight of Redtailed Hawks and larger birds isnt starting up until 10am or later. Sharpshined Hawks were on the move early today.In recent days we have seen a few Eastern Bluebirds and yesterday Walter and I saw a Viceroy Butterfly and a late Fiery Skipper.