Oct 15th - Beautiful Day, Few Birds

Today:
Northern Harrier - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 5
Total - 9

Northern Harrier (Ann)

Red-tailed Hawk (Ann)

Turkey Vulture (Ann)

Other Birds:
American Crow - 50!
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1

 Just some of the murder of crows (Ann)

Weather Prediction:
Rain most of the day!

Walter

Oct 14th - Lucky 13!

A big thankyou to those who were at the Watch and counting birds during the morning hours.  I arrived around 12:30pm and saw nothing during the afternoon.  I stayed until 5:00pm!

Today:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 12
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 13

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1909
Osprey - 58
Bald Eagle - 90
Northern Harrier - 96
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1154
Cooper's Hawk - 38
Northern Goshawk - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 13
Broad-winged Hawk - 236
Red-tailed Hawk - 181
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 270
Merlin - 81
Peregrine Falcon - 31
Total - 4160

Other Birds:
Black-capped Chickadee - a few small groups appeared to be moving through the park

Butterflies:
Monarch - 1
Orange Sulphur - 1
Silver-spotted Skipper - 1 (another late sighting for the GTA)

People:
Trudy, Lee, Betty, Arvo, Terry, Ron, Blane, Dave, and Peter.  Thanks everyone for hanging in there today!

These little beauties flew by twice today (Arvo)

Weather Prediction:
Wind is from the south tomorrow.  Not very good for migration unfortunately.

Walter

Oct 13th - From Harrier To Harrier

Our first bird of the day was a Northern Harrier and so was our last.  In-between those two we had 315 other raptors today.  A late day push of Vultures helped to improved our count for the day somewhat.  My thanks to everyone for another fun day at the office!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 164
Bald Eagle - 2
Northern Harrier - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 111
Cooper's Hawk - 5
Northern Goshawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 23
American Kestrel - 4
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 317

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1909
Osprey - 58
Bald Eagle - 90
Northern Harrier - 96
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1142
Cooper's Hawk - 38
Northern Goshawk - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 13
Broad-winged Hawk - 236
Red-tailed Hawk - 181
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 270
Merlin - 81
Peregrine Falcon - 30
Total - 4147

Eagle Time (DST):
01:10 - BE
02:42 - BE

our first eagle of the day! (Arvo)

a young Peregrine with a transmitter attached (Arvo)

(click on the photo to see the wire under it's tail)

Other Birds:
Black-capped Chickadee - several moving through the trees
Blue Jay - many flocks still flying over the park
Loon sp - 7
Red-necked Grebe - 1

Butterflies:
Cabbage White - 5
Monarch - 2 (0 tagged)

People:
Trudy, Kris, Manny, Ron, Rosemary, Allison, Arvo, Betty, Glen, Eleanor, Bruce, Jean, Berle, Carol, Bruce Falls and family, Joyce, Vickie and Diane, and many others.  Thankyou for all your help!

Weather Prediction:
Mostly moderate SW wind for tomorrow.

See you at the park,
Walter

Oct 12th - Another Slow Day!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 5

local Red-tailed Hawk (Arvo)

Peregrine Falcon (Arvo)

Butterflies:
Monarch - 7 (3 tagged)

People:
Trudy, Arvo, Carol, Terry, and Bruce G.

Weather Prediction:
Wind is NW 30kms and gusting to 53kms!  Perfect conditions!  Let's hope the birds read that!

Notice:
Washrooms at the park will now be closed at 3:00pm...unless there is someone working the afternoon shift.

See you there!
Walter

Oct 11th - Light SE Wind, Very Slow Today

Today:
Red-tailed Hawk - 2
Merlin - 1
Total - 3

Butterflies:
Monarch - 5 (1 tagged)

People:
Trudy, Sophie, Hugh, Terry, Betty, Bruce G, Carol, plus a few others.  Thankyou!

Weather Prediction:
SW and S wind for tomorrow.  Maybe a Peregrine Falcon or two, who knows!  Thursday is looking good (at present) for a decent movement of raptors.  Stay tuned!

Walter

Oct 10th - More Vultures, Eagles & Hawks!

I must apologize again, at the time of writing it's 2:30am!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 317
Bald Eagle - 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 4
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 19
Total - 347

To Date:

Turkey Vulture - 1743

Osprey - 58

Bald Eagle - 88

Northern Harrier - 92

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1030

Cooper's Hawk - 33

Northern Goshawk - 1

Red-shouldered Hawk - 12

Broad-winged Hawk - 236

Red-tailed Hawk - 156

Rough-legged Hawk - 0

Golden Eagle - 1

American Kestrel - 266

Merlin - 78

Peregrine Falcon - 28

Total - 3822

Eagle Time (DST):

10:34am - BE

10:44am - BE

11:43am - BE

12:36pm - BE

01:01pm - BE

Bald Eagle (Mike D)

a high-flyin' Bald Eagle (Mike D)

Broad-winged Hawk (Mike D)

Red-tailed Hawk (Mike D)

the local Cooper's Hawk (Paul)

Other Birds:

Loon sp - 1

Snow Goose - 2

Hermit Thrush (Paul)

 a young Yellow-rumped Warbler (Paul)

Butterflies:

Clouded Sulphur - 3

Fiery Skipper - 2

Monarch - 7 (1 tagged)

Orange Sulphur - 1

People:

Phil, Ron, Mark, Sophie, Norm, Ivor, Jean, Bob, Trudy, Berle, Mike & Leslie, Paul, Mike D, Hugh, Sheldon, Sonja, Elias, Eleanor, and a few others.  Thankyou for another wonderful day.

Weather Prediction:

A bit of a mixed bag for wind direction tomorrow.  There is an hour or so of NW wind, so who knows.

Walter

Oct 9th - Now That's More Like It!!!

Sorry, too tired to comment!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 1161
Osprey - 2
Bald Eagle - 4
Northern Harrier - 7
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 163
Cooper's Hawk - 7
Northern Goshawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 8
Red-tailed Hawk - 87
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 32
Merlin - 5
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Total - 1481

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1426

Osprey - 58

Bald Eagle - 83

Northern Harrier - 92

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1029

Cooper's Hawk - 33

Northern Goshawk - 1

Red-shouldered Hawk - 8

Broad-winged Hawk - 235

Red-tailed Hawk - 137

Rough-legged Hawk - 0

Golden Eagle - 1

American Kestrel - 266

Merlin - 78

Peregrine Falcon - 28

Total - 3475

Eagle Time (DST):

11:30am - BE

12:08pm - GE

01:45pm - BE

03:25pm - BE

04:22pm - BE

So many great photos!

Red-tailed Hawk (Ann)

Osprey (Lee)

Peregrine Falcon (Mike D)

Red-shouldered Hawk (Mike D)

Red-tailed Hawk (Mike D)

Osprey (Mike D)

Red-tailed Hawk (Mike D)

Red-tailed Hawk (Mike D)

Golden Eagle (Mike D)

Cooper's Hawk (Mike D)

Turkey Vulture (Paul)

Turkey Vulture (Paul)

Red-tailed Hawk (Paul)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Paul)

Other Birds:

Common Raven - 4

Eastern Bluebird - a few flying overhead

Loon sp - 28

Snow Goose - 3

a migrating Blue Jay (Ann)

3 Snow Geese flying with a couple of Canadas (Ann)

Butterflies:

Monarch - 23 (no tagging)

People:

Phil, Mike D, Paul, Ron, Manfred, Sonja, Jean, Bruce & Ann Falls, Richard, Bruce, Lee, Hugh, Matt, Betty, Allison, Berle, Ann, and many others.  Thankyou for ALL your help today!

 Oh no, there goes Lee! (Ann)

Weather Predicion:

Lighter N and NE wind tomorrow.  Might bring even more birds our way!

See you there,

Walter