Nov 6th - 55 Raptors, 1 Eagle

Maybe not quite the day everyone was hoping for but maybe the day it was suppose to be, given the fact we're now in to November.  Having said that, I'm not sure where all the Red-tailed Hawks and Northern Goshawks are!!!  A juvenile Bald Eagle late in the day flew by real close and then did a circle right beside us over the bluffs no higher than tree-top level - it was amazing!!!

Rosetta McClain Gardens Raptor Watch, Toronto
06 November 2017
08:00am - 04:30pm

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 6
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 10
Red-shouldered Hawk - 5
Red-tailed Hawk - 25
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 55

Eagle Time (EST):
03:42pm - BE (juv.)

Well worth the wait today, a juvenile Bald Eagle passing

and circling very close to us (Matt)

The next 9 photos are all of Red-shouldered Hawks...

(Mike)

(Matt)

(Ann)

(Mike)

(Mike)

(Mike)

(Ann)

(Matt)

(Ann)

a local Cooper's Hawk (Mike)

a juvenile Turkey Vulture in molt (Mike)

Notice the new feathers growing-in on the wingtips

a 'Grey Ghost' male Northern Harrier (Mike)

a nice capture of the upper 'grey' side of the wing (Matt)

Red-tailed Hawk (Matt)

a lightly marked Red-tailed Hawk (Matt)

Red-tailed Hawk (Ann)

a juvenile Peregrine Falcon (Mike)

Other Birds:
Common Loon (6), Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, American Robin, Blue Jay, Pine Siskin, Long-tailed Duck, European Starling, Rock Pigeon, Cedar Waxwing, American Goldfinch, Eastern Bluebird (43), Canada Goose, Cackling Goose, Rusty Blackbird, Merlin (local), Cooper's Hawk (local), Red-tailed Hawk (local), Ring-billed Gull, American Crow (53), Dark-eyed Junco, Double-crested Cormorant, Black-capped Chickadee, and a possible Red-throated Loon.

Pine Siskins (Mike)

Eastern Bluebirds (Ann)

Canada Geese (Matt)

Fleecy Owl (Matt)

Insects:
Monarch - 2

Hawkwatchers:
Theresa, Nolan, Walter, Allison, Ann, Margaret, Matt, Ron, Berle, Dianne, Manny, Peter, Dave, Betty, Pat and Nancy, Mike, Lee, Hugh, Bruce Falls and Kathryn, Carole and Brian, and several others!  Sorry we missed your names.

Just some of today's watchers (Ann)

So many leaves yet to fall (Ann)

The colours were gorgeous! (Ann)

Weather Prediction:
At the time of writing the Weather Network is calling for light winds tomorrow from all points on the dial except east.  A 'pick your direction' kinda day!  I'll check again in the morning for a more promising wind forecast before deciding whether or not I'll be at the park.

Walter

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

Oct 26th - 225 raptors, both eagles!

A huge thank you to the 16 volunteers who helped us count raptors from all heights and angles as well as counting many flocks of early morning passerines.  Though the numbers weren't as high as hoped we had 211 raptors from 11 species.  (Theresa)

Dave, Lee, and one or two others stayed after Theresa and everyone else left and added another 14 birds to the count.

Rosetta McClain Gardens Raptor Watch, Toronto
26 October 2017
8:30am - 4:30pm

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 142
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 36
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 26
Rough-legged Hawk - 2
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 5
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Unidentified Buteo - 3
Unidentified Raptor - 3
Total - 225

 immature Golden Eagle (Kris)

Eagle Time DST:
12:44pm - GE (immature)
02:32pm - BE (adult)

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 2660
Osprey - 34
Bald Eagle - 65
Northern Harrier - 79
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 574
Cooper's Hawk - 33
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 5
Broad-winged Hawk - 60
Red-tailed Hawk - 154
Rough-legged Hawk - 3
Golden Eagle - 2
American Kestrel - 223
Merlin - 23
Peregrine Falcon - 26
Unidentified Accipiter - 1
Unidentified Buteo - 11
Unidentified Falcon - 3
Unidentified Eagle - 0
Unidentified Raptor - 5
Total - 3961

Other Birds:
Flying overhead:
Red-winged Blackbirds (2500+), American Robins (250), Eastern Bluebirds (200 or more), Blue Jays (100+), Golden-crowned Kinglet (65, many landing in the park), Cedar Waxwings (25), Common Loons (12), American Crows (10)

On the lake:
Red-breasted Mergansers (525+)

In the park:
Dark-eyed Juncos, White-throated Sparrows, American Goldfinches, Brown Creepers (2), Carolina Wren (singing), Hermit Thrush (atleast 1), plus all the usual suspects.

Insects:
Monarch - 71
Painted Lady - 9

Hawkwatchers:
Joyce, Berle, Sonja, Kris, Ron, Nolan, Theresa, Sheldon, Bruce, Norm, Jessie, Betty, Dave, Carole, Brian, Joe, Rosemary, Terry, Lee, Blaine, and several newcomers.  Thank you all.  (Theresa)

Walter

Oct 25th

Rosetta McClain Gardens Raptor Watch, Toronto
25 October 2017
9:30am - 2:00pm

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Total: 9

our first Roughie! (Theresa)

Red-shouldered Hawk (Theresa)

Other Birds:

American Crow, Eastern Phoebe, and Hermit Thrush

Insects:

Monarch - 19

Painted Lady - 5

Hawkwatchers:

Theresa, Betty, Ron, Pat & Nancy, and Ann

Weather Prediction:

Light NW wind in the morning switching to W by noon.  NW wind returns later in the afternoon.

Walter

 

Oct 24th - 3727 Raptors!!!

Wow, talk about clickbaiting!  Sorry, that's our overall total to date - lol!  Our total for today was just 20 raptors.


RMG Raptor Watch, Toronto
24 October 2017
10:20am - 2:20pm

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 13
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 6
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 20

Apparently we're not quite done with the parade of TVs (Theresa)

Other Birds:
Common Loon - 1
Pine Siskin - 4

Insects:
Monarch - 33

Hawkwatchers:
Theresa, Betty, and Berle

Weather Prediction:
Stay tuned folks as there may be a decent NW wind day coming in the next couple of weeks!!!


I know a few of you have been asking/wondering how the count has been going this year so here it is in all it's glory!...

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 2516   (3rd best count in 14 years)
Osprey - 34   (14th best count in 14 years)
Bald Eagle - 64   (8th best count in 14 years)
Northern Harrier - 76   (13th best count in 14 years)
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 535   (14 best count in 14 years)
Cooper's Hawk - 32   (14th best count in 14 years)
Northern Goshawk - 0   (14th best count in 14 years)
Red-shouldered Hawk - 4   (14th best count in 14 years)
Broad-winged Hawk - 60   (11th best count in 14 years)
Red-tailed Hawk - 127   (14th best count in 14 years)
Rough-legged Hawk - 0   (14th best count in 14 years)
Golden Eagle - 1   (14th best count in 14 years)
American Kestrel - 217   (13th best count in 14 years)
Merlin - 22   (13th best count in 14 years)
Peregrine Falcon - 25   (14th best count in 14 years)
Unidentified Accipiter - 1
Unidentified Buteo - 8
Unidentified Falcon - 3
Unidentified Eagle - 0
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 3727   (12th best count 14 years)

Yikes!!!  Thank God for TVs and BEs!  Hopefully things will pick up a little.

See you down at the fence,
Walter

Oct 23rd - A Peregrine Falcon!

Rosetta McClain Gardens Raptor Watch, Toronto
23 October 2017
07:50am - 09:00am

Today:
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Falcon sp. - 1

Other Birds:
Red-tailed Hawk - 2 (locals)

Insects:
Monarch - 2

Hawkwatchers:
Allison

Theresa, Betty, and Hugh covered between 10:45am - 01:00pm but saw no migrating raptors.

Walter