Special Post - Frank's Bench

Since I first mentioned that the installation of Frank's bench was going ahead back on October 22nd sadly not much has happened since.  Only the footings for the concrete foundation have been set.  Hopefully one day soon I'll be able to announce the pouring of the concrete, the bench installation and a little get-together.

Walter

November 8th - 30 Birds, 2 Eagles!

The parade of Red-tailed Hawks that I was hoping for didn't quite happen today but we did have a good variety of hawks fly over the Watch site.  The star of the show was a Golden Eagle which came along shortly after one o'clock.  Our first raptor of the day went by unidentified, I'm now waiting for a photo for review.

After looking at the submitted photo of the unidentified raptor, it turned out to be a Cooper's Hawk.

Today:
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Cooper's Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 15
Golden Eagle - 1
Merlin - 2
Total - 30

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1663
Osprey - 117
Bald Eagle - 104
Northern Harrier - 123
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1579
Cooper's Hawk - 47
Northern Goshawk - 6
Red-shouldered Hawk - 14
Broad-winged Hawk - 139
Red-tailed Hawk - 559
Rough-legged Hawk - 15
Golden Eagle - 3
American Kestrel - 470
Merlin - 62
Peregrine Falcon - 51
Total - 4952

Eagle Time (EST):
01:11 PM - GE immature (non-adult)
01:20 PM - BE immature (non-adult)

Here are some great shots from the day...

Northern Harrier

Red-tailed Hawk

Merlin

Golden Eagle

We tallied up 10 more Loons flying overhead today.  The fox came by for a visit this afternoon.

Here's a beautiful photo that Helena took of our little red friend...

 

Here's a fabulous piece of work that Helena did on her tablet which reflects my excitement of seeing another GE...

 

I would like to thank everyone for a most enjoyable day.  Your help and friendship is always greatly appreciated.

 

Walter

 

November 7th - 5 Birds over 5 Hours!

Again not one of our better days.  The wind seemed to be blowing down from the NW but maybe it was a little too much W.  Cloud cover was good but actually maybe a little too heavy.  Who knows!

Today:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3
Red-tailed Hawk - 2
Total - 5

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1663
Osprey - 117
Bald Eagle - 103
Northern Harrier - 118
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1577
Cooper's Hawk - 43
Northern Goshawk - 6
Red-shouldered Hawk - 14
Broad-winged Hawk - 139
Red-tailed Hawk - 544
Rough-legged Hawk - 15
Golden Eagle - 2
American Kestrel - 470
Merlin - 60
Peregrine Falcon - 51
Total - 4922

Here's a couple that I got of the local Red-tailed Hawk today...

 

Only 134 more birds needed to hit the 50,000 mark.

Three loons were seen flying south high overhead.

Kris, Peter, Ron, Betty, Tim, Terry, Berle, and Lee out in the field all did a fine job searching the sky today.

At the time of writing the predicted weather forecast for tomorrow via the Weather Network is calling for 30 km/h NW wind with gusts up to 48 km/h.  Might be a great day!

Walter

November 5th - Beautiful Day!

Well unfortunately today was just too nice of a day for much to fly but I gave it look-see anyway.  Surprisingly not long after I arrived a Merlin flew low over the park.  It was followed shortly thereafter by a Sharpie.  Then we went almost 3 hours before we saw our next 2 Sharpies!  Three butterflies were seen and one of the foxes was sniffin' around the park around lunchtime.

Today:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3
Merlin - 1
Total - 4

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1663
Osprey - 117
Bald Eagle - 103
Northern Harrier - 118
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1574
Cooper's Hawk - 43
Northern Goshawk - 6
Red-shouldered Hawk - 14
Broad-winged Hawk - 139
Red-tailed Hawk - 542
Rough-legged Hawk - 15
Golden Eagle - 2
American Kestrel - 470
Merlin - 60
Peregrine Falcon - 51
Total - 4917

A late Monarch was observed flying along on the wind heading westward.  A Clouded Sulphur was seen landing in the grass along the top edge of the bluffs before it headed westward and an Orange Sulphur was photographed feeding on some late-blooming Butterfly Bush.

Berle, Terry, Kris, and Cori were at the park today.

Walter

November 3rd - A Little Stronger Wind Please!

Today was a fine example of what happens when you've got good wind direction but not good wind speed.  After reviewing today's report from Cranberry Marsh in Whitby, we saw only one-fifth of the raptors that they saw within roughly the same time period.  Stronger wind would've kept many of their birds much closer to the lake and likely within our view once they passed our area.  It happens!  On a happier note, we did have a beautiful view of 3 Rough-legged Hawks flying along together above us.  Two of the three were dark morph birds.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 6
Bald Eagle - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 25
Rough-legged Hawk - 4
Total - 40

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1663
Osprey - 117
Bald Eagle - 103
Northern Harrier - 118
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1571
Cooper's Hawk - 43
Northern Goshawk - 6
Red-shouldered Hawk - 14
Broad-winged Hawk - 139
Red-tailed Hawk - 542
Rough-legged Hawk - 15
Golden Eagle - 2
American Kestrel - 470
Merlin - 59
Peregrine Falcon - 51
Total - 4913

Eagle Time (EST):
11:42 AM - BE immature (non-adult)

Here are a few photos from the day...

Turkey Vulture (Ann)

 

Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk (Elias)

 

Turkey Vulture (Mike D)

Rough-legged Hawks (Mike D)

We are now down to just 143 more birds needed to reach the 50,000 mark.  My guess is that 50,000th bird will be a Red-tailed Hawk!

Another 5 migrating Loons were counted this morning.  It would appear that the Monarch migration is now over for the season.  A total of 1467 butterflies were counted between August 29th and October 28th.  This is quite a dramatic decrease in their numbers as we all know.  Hopefully within the next year or two we'll start to see things turn around for these little beauties.

20+ watchers today made the day very enjoyable.  Thank you once again for all of your help.

Walter