October 22nd - 41 Birds, 9 Species

As I arrived at the park and approached the Watch site this morning our first bird of the day flew by at eye level, it was a Northern Harrier.  The wind was a little bit better today, maybe even a slight north element at times, hard to say.  Birds came but again few and far between.  Best sighting of the day was a light morph Rough-legged Hawk that came in over the top of the trees, in to the park, and then northward and over Variety Village.  A short and sweet sighting!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 9
Northern Harrier - 8
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 18
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 3
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 41

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1450
Osprey - 117
Bald Eagle - 98
Northern Harrier - 98
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1381
Cooper's Hawk - 34
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 6
Broad-winged Hawk - 139
Red-tailed Hawk - 127
Rough-legged Hawk - 2
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 467
Merlin - 53
Peregrine Falcon - 42
Total - 4012

Photos are courtesy of Paul Reeves...

adult Sharp-shinned Hawk

Turkey Vulture

 

Two Monarch butterflies braved the cold wind and made their way along the bluffs.  Only 1 Loon was counted today.  A Black-throated Green Warbler was a nice surprise find today.  Eastern Bluebirds were observed again early this morning migrating westward overhead.  Although we never have too many Bluebirds land in the park they're now my favourite migrating passerine.  Always heard first and then seen.

 

Black-throated Green Warbler

 

And one that I took...

 

Red Fox

 

Watchers today included: Paul, Kris, Hugh, Carol, Ron, Lee, Berle, John, Terry, Peter, Manny, Betty, and Trudy.  Thank you everyone for another fun-filled day!

 

Special note:  Today I was given word that the city will be installing Frank's bench tomorrow sometime.  Unfortunately, we're not 100% sure of just what that means.  They might just be pouring the concrete foundation and then putting in the bench a few days later as we've seen in the past.  Anyway, I'll keep you informed of what's happening here on the blog.  Likely one day next week we'll all get together down at the park for the unveiling of the bench and a celebration of our time with the big guy.

 

The predicted weather forecast from wunderground.com is "Overcast with a chance of rain in the morning, then partly cloudy with a chance of rain. High of 10C. Breezy. Winds from the NW at 15 to 25 km/h. Chance of rain 50%."  The Weather Network's forecast was very similar.  Let's all hope for a big day and that the rain doesn't come!

 

Walter