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

Sep 2nd - Much Slower Today

A sunny day all day with only a couple of clouds made raptor spotting and viewing very difficult.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 7
Osprey - 1
Northern Harrier - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 8
Broad-winged Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 2
Merlin - 1
Total - 26

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 23
Osprey - 17
Bald Eagle - 49
Northern Harrier - 17
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 66
Cooper's Hawk - 3
Broad-winged Hawk - 135
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
American Kestrel - 39
Merlin - 10
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Total - 372

Other Birds:
Common Nighthawk - 1
Common Raven - 2
Loon sp - 2
Warbler sp - several

Butterflies:
Monarch - 45 (5 tagged)

People:
Too many to list!  Thank you everyone for a great day despite the low number of hawks.

Weather Prediction:
The forecast over the weekend does not look very promising for the movement of migrating raptors.

Walter

Sep 1st - A Record 48 Bald Eagles!!!!!

Well, if you're going to break a record, you might as well crush it!  Our old record for Bald Eagles in a single day was 27.  I had a feeling that we'd have a good day today but never did I expect that.  Just after arriving at the park and hanging my backpack on the fence I turned and looked to the east only to see our first bird of the day - an Osprey at 6:59am!  Roughly 20 minutes later bird two came along - a Northern Harrier.  A little bit later I had a Condor fly over.  Not the one from California but the one from the Ukraine, it's big and it's wingspan is 240 feet from tip to tip!  The day only got better from there!  Thank you to all those who came out today to enjoy the specticle.  Thank you for all your help.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 12
Osprey - 12
Bald Eagle - 48
Northern Harrier - 13
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 52
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 127
Red-tailed Hawk - 6
American Kestrel - 33
Merlin - 3
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 308

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 16
Osprey - 16
Bald Eagle - 49
Northern Harrier - 14
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 58
Cooper's Hawk - 3
Broad-winged Hawk - 131
Red-tailed Hawk - 7
American Kestrel - 39
Merlin - 9
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Total - 346

Eagle Time (DST):
10:27am - BE - 1
11:02am - BE - 1
11:25am - BE - 2
11:39am - BE - 1
11:44am - BE - 12
12:01pm - BE - 1
12:05pm - BE - 1
12:09pm - BE - 1
12:11pm - BE - 1
12:16pm - BE - 4
12:47pm - BE - 1
12:56pm - BE - 1
01:06pm - BE - 1
01:19pm - BE - 1
01:42pm - BE - 1
01:47pm - BE - 2
01:55pm - BE - 2
02:00pm - BE - 1
02:03pm - BE - 1
02:24pm - BE - 3
02:31pm - BE - 1
02:48pm - BE - 2
03:01pm - BE - 1
03:15pm - BE - 3
04:35pm - BE - 2

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Ann)

a young Bald Eagle (Ann)

a young Broad-winged Hawk (Ann)

An adult Bald Eagle and a Broad-winged Hawk (Arvo)

Another adult Bald Eagle (Ann)

A Merlin with lunch (Ann)

Hey look, it's another Bald Eagle! (Ann)

An adult male Northern Harrier (Ann)

Another beautifully marked young Bald Eagle (Arvo)

A small kettle of Broad-winged Hawks (Arvo)

Merlin (Ann)

Turkey Vulture (Ann)

Other Birds:
Common Nighthawk - 1
Loons - 4
Warblers - several species

Common Nighthawk (Arvo)

Butterflies:
Monarch - 117 (46 tagged)

People:
Noam, Lorne, Ron & Jean, Hugh, Kris, Pat & Nancy, Kevin, Berle, Elenor, Carol, Glen, Ann, Murray, Arvo, Lynn, Allison, Sophie, Lee, Terry, Betty, and many others who stopped by.  Thankyou everyone!

Antonov AN-124 'Ruslan' (NATO codename: Condor) (Walter)

International Cargo Transporter

(Built by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Ukrainian S.S.R.,

back in the days of the former Soviet Union)

It's the second largest plane in the world behind the Antonov AN-225!

Weather Prediction:

More of the same for tomorrow!!!  Don't be surprised if the birds are flying up high again.

Walter

Aug 31st - Month End Report

Thank God for butterflies because unfortunately we've just experienced our worst-ever month of hawk-watching at Rosetta - only 38 raptors!  I believe we had just one or two days that had a 'north' element in the wind and with all the heat and humidity day after day, I personally don't think we've missed birds, I think they're yet to come.  We start September with a day of wind blowing down from the north so we'll see if I'm correct, we'll see if they've been backed-up waiting.  Finger's crossed!

Here's what we've counted so far...


Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 4
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 6
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 6
Merlin - 6
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Total - 38

Bird species - 61

Butterfly species - 24
Monarch - 566 (351 tagged)

Mammal species - 4

Weather Prediction:
Sep 1st - mainly sunny with a high of 25 degrees celcius, north wind at 25km/h and gusting!
The Weather Network

See you along the fence!
Walter

Aug 30th - Thanks for the help everyone!

It was another day at the park with some people, some birds, and some butterflies.....other than that not much happened!  Oh, and it was hot as heck again!  I'd like to thank everyone who brought to my attention the raptors flying overhead, the birds that were photographed on previous days, and the songbirds seen in the park.  For the better part of the day I was hiding in the shade under the pergola.

Today:
Osprey - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Total - 3

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 4
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 4
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 6
Merlin - 6
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Total - 35

Other Birds:
A few Warblers are starting to show up

Butterflies:
Monarch - 23 (16 tagged)

A slightly worn Eastern Comma (Walter)

Weather Prediction:
Continuing with similar heat and humidity on Wednesday.  Currently Thursday has N wind in it's forecast so we'll keep an eye on that.

Walter

Aug 29th - Only A Few Birds!

Just as I thought - only a few birds.  Hopefully the cooler temperature today is a sign of things to come.

Today:
Osprey - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 2
Merlin - 3
Total - 7

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 3
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 3
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 6
Merlin - 6
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Total - 32

Since inception our best count for the month of August occurred two years ago in 2014 when we counted 297 birds, in 2015 we counted just 75 birds, our lowest.  This year, as you can see we're only at 30 birds with only 2 days left in the month.  Trend?  I certainly hope not, just an observation by me.  Let's hope for some BIG days in September!

Other Birds:
Common Yellowthroat
American Restart
Pine Warbler
Canada Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
White-throated Sparrow

Butterflies:
Monarch - 42 (24 tagged)

People:
Hugh, Lorne, Lee, Peter, Berle, Terry, Betty, Bruce G, Carol, and Allison

Weather Prediction:
Looks like the heat and humidity returns for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday shows lots of promise at present.

Walter

Aug 28th - OMG, Wind from the North!

Aug 29th, 7:30am Update:  Winds died down during the night.  Maybe only a few birds, if any.

If all holds true with the current weather forecast we may see raptors in the air tomorrow!  I'll be at the park early waiting for the birds!  See you there!

Today:
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Total - 2

Walter