September 25th - Just 5 Birds

We had excellent whispy cloud cover high up for several hours today but unfortunately we couldn't find anything flying along. We counted just 5 birds in the span of 6 hours.

Today:
Osprey - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 5

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 562
Osprey - 105
Bald Eagle - 90
Northern Harrier - 67
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1193
Cooper's Hawk - 19
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 139
Red-tailed Hawk - 61
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 426
Merlin - 31
Peregrine Falcon - 12
Total - 2705

The only shot that I took today...

Osprey

 

Our big highlight of the day was a Pileated Woodpecker.  A few people saw only a quick glimpse of it as it moved across the area.  It was heard calling from several locations, the last being the parkette behind the Arts Council.

Ron, Trudy, Betty, Arvo, Manny, and a few others helped out with today's watch.

Walter

September 24th - 4 More Eagles!

Sorry, this is getting very repetitive but it was another all-blue sky today.  Not one single cloud was seen overhead.  Spotting was extremely difficult at best.  By mid-morning we had started to see a few kettles of Turkey Vultures and a couple of Bald Eagles but then things abruptly stopped almost completely for the day.  Only one Sharpie and an Osprey were seen in the afternoon.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 72
Osprey - 2
Bald Eagle - 4
Northern Harrier - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 7
American Kestrel - 2
Merlin - 1
Total - 90

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 562
Osprey - 104
Bald Eagle - 90
Northern Harrier - 66
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1191
Cooper's Hawk - 19
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 139
Red-tailed Hawk - 61
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 426
Merlin - 31
Peregrine Falcon - 11
Total - 2700

Eagle Time (EDT):
10:33 AM - BE adult
10:45 AM - BE immature (non-adult)
10:57 AM - BE immature (non-adult)
11:40 AM - BE immature (non-adult)

For anyone keeping score, I've added a Peregrine Falcon to yesterday's count after seeing a couple of photos that Cori took late in the afternoon.  The bird was circling over the parking lot as we were about to leave yesterday and Cori was able to snap a few decent photos of it.

Here's a couple of photos courtesy of me...

Bald Eagle #89

 

Bald Eagle #90

 

Here's 2 shots courtesy of Richard Sigesmund...

 

Bald Eagle #90 

 

A Merlin having a feeble go at a Monarch

More than 100 Monarch butterflies were seen today.  Also, many Cabbage White butterflies, Orange Sulphur butterflies, and dragonflies of various species were in the air.  One of the foxes came strolling through the gardens this afternoon adding some excitement to the day.

Another shot from me...

Red Fox

Watchers and waiters today included: Kris, Richard, Lorne, Effie, Carol, Berle, Betty, Terry, Ron, Hugh, Manny, and Trudy.  Thank you!

Walter

September 23rd - Turkey Vulture Day!

We sure are getting our share of blue sky this fall.  When I arrived at the park this morning we had pretty good cloud cover but as time went on the clouds disappeared one after the other.  Most birds were seen flying high up.  As afternoon approached the vultures started to soar over the trees.  First it was small groups of 5-10 flying by and then a few hours later the last group was 60 birds strong.  What a sight as they circled overhead!  Even though Turkey Vultures are black, we could have very easily missed some.  Again, thank you everyone for an excellent day of hawk watching!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 349
Osprey - 3
Bald Eagle - 2
Northern Harrier - 9
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 39
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 20
Red-tailed Hawk - 7
American Kestrel - 19
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 452

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 490
Osprey - 102
Bald Eagle - 86
Northern Harrier - 64
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1184
Cooper's Hawk - 19
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 139
Red-tailed Hawk - 61
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 424
Merlin - 30
Peregrine Falcon - 11
Total - 2610

Eagle Time (EDT):
10:48 AM - BE immature (non-adult)
04:36 PM - BE immature (non-adult)

The following photos are courtesy of Ann Brokelman...

Cooper's Hawk

Turkey Vultures

Bald Eagle #86!

Only a couple of Loons flew over, at least that we saw, and 30 Monarchs were counted today.

David, Phil, Dave, Ron & Jean, Betty, Berle, Carol, Terry, Cori, Ann, Byron and likely a couple of others were on hand to help with the spotting.  Also, I'd like to thank Lee and Ann for their field reporting a few kms to the east of our site.  Although we don't always see every bird that they report, it's great when we do.  It also shows if the birds are following the shoreline or not.

It appears that tomorrow's weather will be similar to todays.  More Vultures?

Walter

September 22nd - A Fabulous Day!

It was a fabulous day at the park with lots of sunshine, lots of birders, and of course, lots of birds!  My thanks to everyone that came down and helped out and I hope all you newbies enjoyed the show.  Also, thanks to Terry for bringing a group of birders from the TFN along today, hope you had a good time while visiting us.  Likely one of our biggest crowds ever today.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 89
Osprey - 8
Bald Eagle - 3
Northern Harrier - 7
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 255
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Broad-winged Hawk - 51
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
American Kestrel - 124
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 548

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 144
Osprey - 99
Bald Eagle - 84
Northern Harrier - 55
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1145
Cooper's Hawk - 17
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 119
Red-tailed Hawk - 54
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 405
Merlin - 29
Peregrine Falcon - 10
Total - 2158

Eagle Time (EDT):
10:17 AM - BE adult
12:22 PM - BE immature (non-adult)
01:09 PM - BE immature (non-adult)

Some beautiful shots courtesy of Ann Brokelman...

American Kestrel w/Dragonfly

Broad-winged Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

 

And the next 3 are courtesy of Paul Reeves...

 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

These 2 cuties were a wonderful surprise

Lookin' Back

 

And here are some real crowd pleasers courtesy of Ann Brokelman... 

Ready and Waiting 

 

Some of the Toronto Field Naturalists group

Writing stuff down

Me, Lee and her 'big fat lens'

Gabriel (visiting from Costa Rica) and Julie (Ann's daughter)

 

Tomorrow (Monday) is looking promising with predicted "Clear. High of 18C. Winds from the North at 10 to 15 km/h" from wunderground.com.

 

Walter

 

Special Post - In The Beginning...

Earlier tonight while sorting through a pile of Frank's old paperwork that had been sitting in a cupboard in the office at the park I found the following piece to be of special interest and wanted to share it with everybody.

It's Frank's report for his first season of hawk watching at Rosetta.

Frank's Rosetta McClain Memorial Gardens Report Fall 2004

Walter

September 21st - Rain, Rain, Go Away...!

Well folks, it's was definitely a 'wash-out' today.  I saw absolutely no birds...from my kitchen window!  We'll try again tomorrow.

At present, the predicted forecast from wunderground.com is "Overcast in the morning, then mostly cloudy. High of 15C. Breezy. Winds from the NNW at 15 to 25 km/h".  And from theweathernetwork.com "NW 20 km/h wind switching to N 20 km/h, with gusts up to 30 km/h".  Sounds to me like a beautiful day to be at the park hawk-watching!

Walter

September 20th - Not Today!

With expectations being extremely low for hawk migration given the weather conditions, I didn't bother to go down to the park today.  If anyone did go and saw anything of interest please let me know.  Thanks.

Walter

September 19th - 4 Birds In 4 Hours!

Not a very productive day at the park.  4 birds in 4 hours didn't quite do it for me.  This morning was extremely overcast and there was absolutely no wind.  Those gathered did however have a nice chat.

Today:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
American Kestrel - 2
Total - 4

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 52
Osprey - 91
Bald Eagle - 81
Northern Harrier - 48
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 890
Cooper's Hawk - 11
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 68
Red-tailed Hawk - 51
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 281
Merlin - 28
Peregrine Falcon - 9
Total - 1610

A few small flocks of Blue Jays migrated over the park early in the day.

Walter

September 18th - A Short-eared Owl!!!

Today was yet another one of those 'all-blue sky' kind of days.....and low SW wind to boot!  Things went pretty much as expected, a few Sharpies here and there.  Of course, that was until Phil showed up for his lunch break!  He was able to spot a Short-eared Owl flying along and heading toward us.  Not too high up but impossible to see in the blue sky, it took me what seemed like an hour before I finally got on it.  The 'wow' factor in seeing one of these beautiful birds flying over your local park is something else.  This is actually the 3rd time in the last four years that we've seen one.  Thankyou Phil!

Today:
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 16
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Total - 18

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 52
Osprey - 91
Bald Eagle - 81
Northern Harrier - 48
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 888
Cooper's Hawk - 11
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 68
Red-tailed Hawk - 51
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 279
Merlin - 28
Peregrine Falcon - 9
Total - 1606

Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find the lightly coloured owl in my view finder so sadly no photos!

Blue Jay migration appears to have started with about a half dozen flocks flying over this morning totalling roughly 60 birds.  Monarch butterflies were down today but still we must've seen 40+.

Norm, Peter, Phil, Ron, Alex, Hugh, Carol, and new watcher Doug were on-hand for at least some of the birds today.  Thanks everyone!

Saturday and Sunday are likely our next days with a 'north' element in the wind direction.  Stay tuned!

Walter

September 17th - Another Eagle!

After all the excitement yesterday afternoon, things were much quieter today.  Only 6 birds were counted.  The highlight was another Bald Eagle!  The three of us who were at the park were sitting chatting away about this, that, and the other thing when I got a text message from Lee saying to watch for a fast flying adult eagle along the bluffs.  We jumped up, got in to position and sure enough, 2-3 minutes later there it was!  Talking to Lee later on I found out that she was at the east end of Bluffer's Park in the parking area close to the beach when she saw and reported the eagle.  That bird was going like a bat out of Hell!

Today:
Bald Eagle - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 5
Total - 6

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 52
Osprey - 91
Bald Eagle - 81
Northern Harrier - 47
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 872
Cooper's Hawk - 10
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 68
Red-tailed Hawk - 51
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 279
Merlin - 28
Peregrine Falcon - 9
Total - 1588

Eagle Time (EDT):
10:20 AM - BE adult

Here's a photo of the eagle that Lee quickly snapped using her cell phone...

 

And a photo that I took at Rosetta...

 

 

Carol and a few others were at the park at 3:00 PM and witnessed an adult Red-tailed Hawk kill and eat one of the squirrels.  Apparently this was the 2nd time during the afternoon that this had happened.

 

Niagara Falls this morning

 

It appears that the next few days are not going to be in our favour with light winds from the south.

 

Walter

 

September 16th - More Eagles Than Birders!

When I went down to the park this morning I was expecting to see and count hundreds of Sharpies and Kestrels and maybe a decent number of Broad-wings, none of that happened.  Even with good wind blowing down from the north not many birds were flying overhead at all.  At 1:45 PM, an eagle was spotted flying fairly low over the north end of the park, then another eagle on the same line of flight, it was followed by another and then another and another...  A few more eagles were seen flying on a line just a little lower down behind many of the trees.  At the west end of the park, several of the eagles were observed rising up on thermals and loosely kettling together.  By the time things settled back down, most of us were speechless for several minutes.  Later in the afternoon at 3:04 PM, 6 more eagles were seen straight overhead flying in a line together one after another.  By day's end we had tallied up a jaw-dropping 27 Bald Eagles!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 25
Osprey - 10
Bald Eagle - 27
Northern Harrier - 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 71
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 5
American Kestrel - 18
Merlin - 3
Peregrine Falcon - 5
Total - 170

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 52
Osprey - 91
Bald Eagle - 80
Northern Harrier - 47
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 867
Cooper's Hawk - 10
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 68
Red-tailed Hawk - 51
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 279
Merlin - 28
Peregrine Falcon - 9
Total - 1582

Eagle Time (EDT):
10:28 AM - BE adult
11:18 AM - BE immature (non-adult)
11:51 AM - BE immature (non-adult)
12:07 PM - BE immature (non-adult)
01:16 PM - BE adult
01:45 PM - BE x12 (mixed)
02:41 PM - BE immature (non-adult)
02:50 PM - BE adult
03:04 PM - BE x6 (mixed)
03:56 PM - BE x2 immature (non-adult)

Today's 27 Bald Eagles is a new 'Day' record for the Watch, the old record was 18.  Our 'Month' record now sits at 74, up from our old record of 43.  And our 'Year' record is now at 80, up from our old record of 73.  We have loads of time left in the season to really push these records to new heights!

Some nice photos courtesy of Ann...

Some of the eagles from today!

 

A Red-tail vs Crow smackdown!

 

Merlin

 

Another 13 Loons were counted today as well as 75+ Monarchs.

 

As a big flight of birds didn't materialize as we'd hoped for, some folks left the park just before it got exciting.  Watchers included: Ann, Byron, Kris, Peter, Betty, Effie, Manny, Robert, Norm, Berle, Terry, Bruce, Cori, and Lee.

 

Walter

 

September 15th - More Birders Than Birds!

Lots of great cloud cover today but with no wind, there were few birds compared to the number of people gathered to watch them.  It happens.  We did however add 4 more Osprey to our count.

Today:
Osprey - 4
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 8
American Kestrel - 3
Total - 16

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 27
Osprey - 80
Bald Eagle - 53
Northern Harrier - 38
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 779
Cooper's Hawk - 9
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 68
Red-tailed Hawk - 46
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 248
Merlin - 24
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Total - 1376

All shots today courtesy of Ann Brokelman...

Osprey

Sharp-shinned Hawk

3 Loons were counted and roughly 50 Monarch butterflies.

Monarch

Big crowd on-hand today including: Ann, Mike 4, Arvo, Tom, Mark, Byron, Mike & Leslie, Mike 5, Pat & Nancy, Patty, Carol, Norm, Ivor, Manny, Jinath & Chris, Peter, and Alex.  Sorry if I've missed anyone.

Tomorrow's (Monday's) forecast from wunderground.com says "Partly cloudy with a chance of rain. High of 17C. Breezy. Winds from the NNE at 15 to 30 km/h. Chance of rain 40%".  So if birds come, they'll likely be up high.  Let's see!

Walter