Oct 25th - 4 Golden Eagles and 2 Bald Eagles!

Just a spectacular day of hawk watching with good wind, a great mix of sun and cloud, and a group of wonderful friends to enjoy the day with!  The flight path today was extremely scattered with birds flying everywhere from far north over Kingston Road to way out over the lake and also at every height in the sky imaginable.  Early in the day we had 4 Golden Eagles fly over within the span of 10 minutes and that really whipped the crowd into a frenzy!  Screams of excitement were heard throughout the park!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 33
Bald Eagle - 2
Northern Harrier - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 47
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 14
Red-tailed Hawk - 114
Golden Eagle - 4
American Kestrel - 1
Merlin - 1
Total - 222

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 2703  (1461)
Osprey - 92  (110)
Bald Eagle - 68  (57)
Northern Harrier - 185  (244)
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2716  (2191)
Cooper's Hawk - 42  (95)
Northern Goshawk - 4  (18)
Red-shouldered Hawk - 35  (25)
Broad-winged Hawk - 89  (216)
Red-tailed Hawk - 378  (757)
Rough-legged Hawk - 1  (10)
Golden Eagle - 6  (10)
American Kestrel - 302  (561)
Merlin - 110  (72)
Peregrine Falcon - 57  (68)
Total - 6788  (5963)

The numbers in red are our seasonal averages.

Calculating the Averages - Seasons 2004 and 2005 were not 'full' seasons so they were not included in the equations.  Before averaging out seasons 2006 to 2014 the two lowest counts and the two highest counts were removed.  This method of calculating averages helps to reduce the effects of outliers (the extreme low and high counts) on the 'calculated' average.  (One area throughout the world where this type of averaging is used most often is in sports scoring and judging)

Eagle Time (DST):
10:40am - GE
10:46am - GE x2
10:50am - GE
11:32am - BE
02:00pm - BE

Might be a new record, 7 people contributed photos today!  Thankyou!

Golden Eagle (Ann)

another great angle of this beauty (Mike)

Red-shouldered Hawk (Charlie)

a great angle showing the 'windows' (Arvo)

 yet another passing Red-shouldered Hawk! (Lee)

an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk (Ann)

 a young Cooper's Hawk (Mike)

a young Sharp-shinned Hawk (Lee)

Red-tailed Hawk (Paul)

 a high-flying Red-tail (Ann)

another low-flying Red-tail (Mike)

this young Red-tail is very heavily marked (Lee)

Other Birds:
Chimney Swift - 1 flying over the center of the park!
Common Loon - 9 flying south high over the park
Crossbill sp. - 1 small flock heard and seen flying east overhead
Eastern Towhee - male and female feeding and moving around the west side of the park
Great Black-backed Gull - 1 juvenile bird flying west over the shoreline
Long-tailed Duck - at least one small flock out on the water

a Common Loon heading south (Mike)

Butterflies:
Cabbage White - 4
Monarch - 2

Mammals:
Eastern Cottontail - 1

Hawkwatchers:
Phil, Bruce M, Ron, Mike, Lee, Charlie, Betty, Peter, Allison, Carol, Dave, Norm, Ann, Berle, Pat & Nancy, Hugh, Paul, Manfred, Eleanor, Mike & Leslie, Trudy, John, Susan, Bruce F, Arvo, Gunnar, and many others.  Thankyou everyone for all your help today!

just a fraction of the group today! (Pat)

Weather Prediction:
Oct 26th - mainly sunny switching to a mix of sun and clouds, E 10km/h switching to SE 10km/h  (theweathernetwork.com)  I wouldn't rush to the park!

Walter