Sep 3rd - Five Raptors!

Today I received a nice email from Mike Williamson.  Mike used to run the old Iroquois Shoreline Raptor Watch out in north Whitby.  He congratulated us all on an outstanding day (September 1st) and informed me that we had blown his old GTA single day count of 36 eagles right out of the air!  Mike is now living down in the Windsor area and is the official counter at the Holiday Beach Hawk Watch.  There they count raptors in the tens of thousands!

As predicted yesterday, not much was flying today but despite that, it was a beautiful day to be out and at the park!

Raptors:
Osprey - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Total - 5

 An adult Osprey (Lee)

A juvenile Cooper's Hawk (Lee)

Other Birds:
Lincoln's Sparrow - 1
Warbler sp - several

Lincoln's Sparrow (Arvo)

Butterflies:

Monarch - 30 (estimated count)

Mourning Cloak - 1

Painted Lady - 1 (species #25 since August 1st!)

Monarch resting on Butterfly Bush (Walter)

Painted Lady nectaring on Butterfly Bush (Walter)

Mammals:

A park worker caring for an orphaned baby Eastern Gray Squirrel (Arvo)

This little fellow was named 'Alan'

 (Eastern Gray Squirrels have two colour morphs - Gray and Black)

Miscellaneous:

Mike Wiskus flying 'Super Stinker' out over the lake before the airshow at the CNE (Arvo)

And just when you thought you'd seen everything possible at the park...

A canoe portage!!! (Arvo)

(I can't even come up with a comment that's fitting for this one)

Weather Prediction:

Sunday will be a day of very light wind, mostly from the east.....not conducive to good raptor movement!

See you soon,

Walter