Sept 9 Report: Big Numbers....of Birders. 59 Raptors...YTD...485

Today we had a cast of thousands to watch the painfully high raptors. A "Meet-Up" group run by our friend Murray Shields met at the watch today, there was a reasonable turnout given the switch in dates, with somewhere around 25 of the group enjoying some birds and socializing. Peter, Phil, Mike 3, Mike & Leslie, Lorne, Allison, Mike 4, Rob & Angie, Norm, Ivor, Hugh, Ron & Jean, Terry 2, Carol, Berle, Colin & Margarite, Tom, Leon, Betty, Lee, Cori, Theresa, Tony, Richard, Andreas, Murray & Deb, all joined us today(so sorry if there were names I didnt mention). It was a real battle to find some of the high birds.
  The best bird of the day was a Peregrine Falcon that landed in a tree on the west side of the park. I was "on a little break" at that time. I await photo evidence of this bird. Rob did mention it had a piece of yellow tape over its US Fish and Wildlife band, something the Canadian Peregrine Foundation(among others now) does each season so young Peregrines are easier to ID when we are doing fledge watches, so its very likely a young local Peregrine from this seasons hatch. We are hoping that the black and white Canadian band will be readable.



Mike 3 sent along a few shots. One was a male Northern Harrier, something we dont see a large number of.

A co-operative Redtailed Hawk

Having a look around.                                                                            Todays final numbers were:

OS - 8

                    BE - 1 (11:59 AM)
NH - 8
SS - 29
BW - 1
RT - 1
AK - 7
ML - 3
PG - 1

TL - 59

 

Also seen today were 1000+  Monarch Butterflys at all levels of the sky, an Eastern Cottontail Rabitt, 2 Red Fox, 4 Fiery Skippers and a Common Buckeye.

Thanks to everyone for a great day. Special thanks to Walter for carrying on the count after I left for the day. It was great to see a number of faces for the first time this season.