Sep 11th - Another Great Day!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 3
Osprey - 5
Bald Eagle - 3
Northern Harrier - 19
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 136
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 41
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
American Kestrel - 39
Merlin - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 254

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 26
Osprey - 23
Bald Eagle - 52
Northern Harrier - 37
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 235
Cooper's Hawk - 7
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 176
Red-tailed Hawk - 12
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 83
Merlin - 18

Peregrine Falcon - 5

Total - 674

Eagle Time (DST):

10:24am - BEx2

03:55pm - BE

Broad-winged Hawk (Ann)

Northern Harrier (Ann)

Northern Harrier (Ann)

local Red-tailed Hawk (Ann)

Osprey (Ann)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Arvo)

local Red-tailed Hawk (Ann)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Ann)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Ann)

local Turkey Vulture (Ann)

Other Birds:

Common Raven - 2

Great Blue Heron - 3

Loon sp - 11

Butterflies:

Monarch - 200+ (19 tagged)

People:

Phil, Kris, Sheldon, Mike D, Mike F, Lee, Sophie, Norm M, Ian, Justin, Bruce, Gunnar, Allison, Ron & Jean, Derryn, Betty, Ann, Mark, Patti, Mike & Leslie, Norm S, Ivor, Arvo, Pat & Nancy, Murray & Debbie, Dave C, Berle, Dave S, Peter, Eleanor, Carol, and many many more!!!  Thankyou to everyone for an amazing day of fun in the sun!  And thankyou to those who were kind enough to bring food and drinks, we really appreciated it!

Weather Prediction:

A slight bit of NW wind to start the morning and then quickly switching to SW and S.

Walter

Sep 10th - A Couple More In-between the Rain

Thanks to Lee we have a report for today...

Today:
American Kestrel - 2
Merlin - 1
Total - 3

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 23
Osprey - 18
Bald Eagle - 49
Northern Harrier - 18
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 99
Cooper's Hawk - 5
Broad-winged Hawk - 135
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
American Kestrel - 44
Merlin - 16
Peregrine Falcon - 4

Total - 420

American Kestrel (Lee)

Merlin (Lee)

Other Birds:
Turkey Vulture (local)
Red-tailed Hawk (local)

Red-tailed Hawk (Lee)

Turkey Vulture (Lee)

Butterflies:
Monarch - 10 (1 tagged)

 A mating pair of Monarchs (Lee)

People:
Lee and Allison

Weather Prediction:
Tomorrow's strong NW winds should create ideal conditions for a fabulous movement of raptors over the park!!!  The flight will likely be down low just over the tree tops and should create excellent views of the birds as they pass.  I'll be at the park very early waiting in anticipation!

See you there, don't be late!
Walter

Sep 9th - 29 Small-sized Raptors!

We started the day with light NW wind which brought most of the birds along but once the wind swung around to the south the migration dried up!  Watch the weather for Sunday!!!

Today:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 23
Cooper's Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 3
Merlin - 2
Total - 29

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 23
Osprey - 18
Bald Eagle - 49
Northern Harrier - 18
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 99
Cooper's Hawk - 5
Broad-winged Hawk - 135
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
American Kestrel - 42
Merlin - 15
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Total - 417

Other Birds:
Blue-headed Vireo - 1
Loon sp - 4
Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 1
Warbler sp - several

Butterflies:
Black Swallowtail - 2
Monarch - 88 (20 tagged)
Mourning Cloak - 1
Northern Crescent - 1 (species #26 since Aug 1st)
Wild Indigo Duskywing - 2

Northern Crescent (Walter)

Mammals:
Mostly just squirrels!

People:
Sheldon, Noam, Paul, Allison, Ron, Norm, Kevin, Berle, Arvo, Hugh, Betty, Eleanor, and a few others.  Thankyou everyone!

Weather Prediction:
Looks like rain off and on for tomorrow but Sunday is looking fantastic at the time of writing.  The Weather Network (Scarborough)

Walter

Sep 5th - Blue Sky, No Wind, Few Raptors!

Unfortunately it was one of those days again!

I'd like to thank Murray for organizing and bringing his Nature Lovers 'Meet-up' group to the park today.  Always a fun time whether we have birds or not!  Many folks hung around long enough to see a few migrating Sharp-shinned Hawks while others learned all about tagging migrating Monarch butterflies.  We look forward to the return of any of the folks from the group that would like to see the raptors flying over on a much better day, especially one with northwest wind.  Always remember this 'Northwest is best!'

Today:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 7
Total - 7

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 23
Osprey - 18
Bald Eagle - 49
Northern Harrier - 18
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 76
Cooper's Hawk - 4
Broad-winged Hawk - 135
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
American Kestrel - 39
Merlin - 13
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Total - 388

Other Birds:
Much quieter today with only a few warblers being seen.

Black-throated Blue Warbler (Paul)

Ovenbird (a species of Warbler) (Paul)

Butterflies:
Monarch - 17 (13 tagged)
Wild Indigo Duskywing - 1
unidentified sp - 1 flying! (very likely Spicebush or Pipevine Swallowtail)

Mammals:
Just the usual suspects; squirrels!

People:
Thankyou to everyone who came out today from the Meet-up group and thankyou to everyone from our group for making them feel so welcome!

Weather Prediction:
Yet another 'Heat Warning' is in effect for tomorrow!  There will be few to no birds flying so try to stay cool elsewhere if you can.

Walter

Sep 4th - 4 Birds!

Today:
Northern Harrier - 1
Merlin - 3
Total - 4

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 23
Osprey - 18
Bald Eagle - 49
Northern Harrier - 18
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 69
Cooper's Hawk - 4
Broad-winged Hawk - 135
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
American Kestrel - 39
Merlin - 13
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Total - 381

A speedy Merlin zipping overhead (Lee)

Other Birds:
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Warbler sp - several

Magnolia Warbler (Paul)

Ovenbird (Paul)

Butterflies:
Monarch - 8

Weather Prediction:
Monday will be sunny with light wind from the E switching to SE  The Weather Network

Walter

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