A Rosetta Tagged Monarch has been Found in Mexico

First '2017' tagged Monarch found and photographed in Mexico!

A Monarch butterfly that was caught, analysed, and then released by Terry and Betty at Rosetta McClain Gardens back on September 2nd, 2017 has been found and photographed in a natural protected area of the San Agustinos Sierra, in the Guanajuato municipality of Acambaro, Mexico.  The city of Acambaro is roughly 85kms northwest of the large Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico.

Photographing this butterfly was like 'winning the lottery' for one of the areas most acitve Monarch butterfly monitors.  Read the story in the Mexico News Daily here.

The long distance traveller, known as XAL289, is a female.  She was caught by Betty and analysed and released by Terry.  Terry mentioned that this butterfly was rated a 4 out of 5 on his 'condition' scale, so she was in 'good' health when released.  Her weight was .55g, which was also very good.

(Gilberto Ruiz Parra)

All data regarding this Monarch and all of the others captured this season were directly entered in to an application known as Dunkadoo.  Dunkadoo is a tool to help scientists and citizen scientists alike collect data in the field and have it stored and displayed instantaneously over the internet for all to see. 

XAL289 was found and photographed (in the dark!) on November 2nd, 2017 by Gilberto Ruiz Parra.  Carol Goodman (Co-founder of 'Dunkadoo') surmised that this butterfly likely averaged about 70kms each day along it's journey south.

A straight-line path using Google Earth from Rosetta McClain Gardens, Toronto, Canada to the city of Acambaro, Mexico is roughly 3500kms.  This little butterfly would've flown much farther than that to get around the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, and any other obstacles along the way.  It also would've been pushed off course somewhat by any strong winds.

Absolutely fantastic!  Congratulations Terry and Betty.

Walter

Nov 3rd - 85 Raptors, 6 Eagles! (updated)

- One of our Sharp-shinned Hawks turned out to be a Cooper's Hawk.  Thank you Ron!

- Another eagle was added to our overall count for today.  It was seen and photographed by Tim R at 4:48pm after Matt and I left.  Thank you Tim!


Rosetta McClain Gardens Raptor Watch, Toronto
3 November 2017
8:30am - 5:00pm

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 5
Bald Eagle - 4
Northern Harrier - 8
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 32
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 22
Golden Eagle - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Unidentified Accipiter - 1
Unidentified Buteo - 2
Total - 85

Eagle Time (DST):
12:28pm - BE juv.
02:03pm - BE juv.
03:14pm - GE ad.
04:28pm - GE juv.
04:34pm - BE juv.
04:48pm - BE juv.

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 2672
Osprey - 34
Bald Eagle - 70
Northern Harrier - 88
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 611
Cooper's Hawk - 37
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 9
Broad-winged Hawk - 60
Red-tailed Hawk - 179
Rough-legged Hawk - 3
Golden Eagle - 4
American Kestrel - 223
Merlin - 31
Peregrine Falcon - 29
Unidentified Accipiter - 2
Unidentified Buteo - 13
Unidentified Falcon - 5
Unidentified Eagle - 0
Unidentified Raptor - 5
Total - 4075

a juvenile Cooper's Hawk (Mike)

a curious adult 'Sharpie' (Mike)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Mike)

a young Red-tailed Hawk (Mike)

another beautiful shot of same (Mike)

Northern Harrier (Mike)

a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk (Mike)

another lovely 'Shoulder' (Mike)

Turkey Vulture (Matt)

our local Red-tailed Hawk enjoying the view (Matt)

our '12:30' Bald Eagle (Matt)

 this beauty flew over at 2:03pm (Matt)

at 3:14pm this adult Golden Eagle flew overhead (Matt)

this beautiful young 'Golden' was spotted by new hawk watcher

Ella at 4:28pm as Matt and I were packing up (Matt)

this juvenile 'Baldie' was spotted by Tim at 4:34pm (Matt)

He also spotted another young BE along the same flight path

out over the lake at 4:48pm.

Other Birds:
Common Loon (18), American Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, Cedar Waxwing, Long-tailed Duck, Red-breasted Merganser, Black-capped Chickadee, White-throated Sparrow, Blue Jay, Eastern Bluebird (62), Double-crested Cormorant, American Crow (42), American Goldfinch, Hermit Thrush, American Pipit, Dark-eyed Junco, Pine Siskin (33), House Finch, Winter Wren, Carolina Wren, Palm Warbler, House Sparrow, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Fox Sparrow, Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Greater Yellowlegs, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a pair of high-flying white geese that after photographic review and much debate by several expert birders will be recorded as Ross's/Ross's x Snow Goose hybrid (Chen sp.)  Because of their height in the sky, photographs were just a little too grainy to make a 100% positive identification.  Pure Snow Goose was ruled based on overall jizz, neck length, and head size.

Chen sp. - Ross's/Ross's x Snow Goose hybrid (Mike)

Chen sp. - Ross's/Ross's x Snow Goose hybrid (Matt)

Insects:
Butterflies:
Cabbage White - 3
Monarch - 12
Painted Lady - 2
Red Admiral - 1
also a pos. Common Buckeye sighting.

Dragonflies:
Green Darner - 3

Hawkwatchers:
Theresa, Noam, Kris, Nolan, Matt, Owen, Allison, Hugh, Ron, Lee, Sheldon, Eleanor, Manny, Mike, Carole, Brian, Norm, Walter, Arvo, Peter, Murray, Betty, Berle, Ruth, Rosemary, Bruce, Bruce and Ann Falls, Ella, and Tim.  Sorry if we've missed anyone.  Thank you everyone for another grand day of raptor watching at Rosetta.  Your help and friendship is very much appreciated.

Weather Prediction:
At the time of writing, Saturday is looking to have E wind all day.

See you again soon,
Walter

Nov 1st - While it's raining out...

...we can hark back to a few days in the Fall from over the years when things really fell in to place.


Our record 'single day' counts...

All Raptors - 2066 birds   (October 12, 2012)

Turkey Vulture - 1750 birds   (October 12, 2012)

Osprey - 53 birds   (September 9, 2010)

Bald Eagle - 48 birds   (September 1, 2016)

Northern Harrier - 65 birds   (September 28, 2007)

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 569 birds   (September 15, 2007)

Cooper's Hawk - 14 birds   (October 1, 2011)

Northern Goshawk - 5 birds   (November 2, 2012 / Novermber 9, 2016)

Red-shouldered Hawk - 33 birds   (October 19, 2014)

Broad-winged Hawk - 1057 birds   (September 16, 2014)

Red-tailed Hawk - 327 birds   (November 4, 2011)

Rough-legged Hawk - 9 birds   (October 31, 2010)

Golden Eagle - 6 birds   (October 28, 2008)

American Kestrel - 233 birds   (October 1, 2011)

Merlin - 17 birds   (October 17, 2011 / October 21, 2012)

Peregrine Falcon - 21 birds   (October 8, 2014)

Black Vulture - 1 bird   (October 23, 2014)

Gyrfalcon - 1 bird   (November 23, 2013)


See you at the fence,

Walter

Oct 29th & 30th

Rosetta McClain Gardens Raptor Watch, Toronto
30 October 2017
8:30am - 5:00pm

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 7
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
Merlin - 8
Unidentified Falcon - 2
Total - 26

Eagle Time (DST):
12:36 - BE (imm)

'BOTD' goes to this gorgeous immature Bald Eagle which

passed by the Watch at an arm's length away (Mike)

Cooper's Hawk (Ann)

Merlins (Ann)

 Merlin (Mike)

immature Northern Harrier (Ann)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Ann)

Red-tailed Hawk (Mike)

Other Birds:
Common Loon, Cedar Waxwing, Double-crested Cormorant, Eastern Phoebe, Dark-eyed Junco, Red-winged Blackbird, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Finch sp., White-throated Sparrow, American Goldfinch, American Robin, Fox Sparrow, Blue Jay, Herring Gull, Ring-billed Gull, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Merganser, Mallard, White-winged Scoter, and Great Black-backed Gull

Insects:
Cabbage White - 1
Common Buckeye - 1
Monarch - 20
Painted Lady - 1

Hawkwatchers:
Allison, Betty, Theresa, Ann, Holly, Sheldon, Arvo, Ron, Gunnar, Mike, Walter, Kelvin, Nolan, Hugh, Terry, Berle, Bruce and Ann Falls, Dave, and a few others



Rosetta McClain Gardens Raptor Watch, Toronto
29 October 2017
10:30am - 1:30pm

Today:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3

Other Birds:
Common Loon, Fox Sparrow

Insects:
Monarch - 0

Hawkwatchers:
Theresa, Leslie, Betty, Sonja, Dave, Mark, Naish, Hugh, and Laura

Walter