Oct 12th - A Bird for Every Day of the Year!

A scene most of you never get to see - LOL! (Walter)

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 32
Osprey - 1
Northern Harrier - 18
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 226
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Northern Goshawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 3
Red-tailed Hawk - 16
American Kestrel - 53
Merlin - 5
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Unidentified Buteo - 1
Unidentified Falcon - 2
Total - 365

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 315
Osprey - 64
Bald Eagle - 70
Northern Harrier - 114
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 843
Cooper's Hawk - 33
Northern Goshawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 3
Broad-winged Hawk - 27
Red-tailed Hawk - 58
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 312
Merlin - 57
Peregrine Falcon - 34
Unidentified Accipiter - 0
Unidentified Buteo - 7
Unidentified Eagle - 0
Unidentified Falcon - 10
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 1951

Turkey Vulture (Mike D)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Lee)

American Kestrel (Mike D)

Northern Harrier (Ann)

Red-shouldered Hawk (Mike D)

Northern Goshawk (Ann)

Northern Goshawk (Mike D)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Ann)

Merlin (Lee)

Turkey Vulture (Ann)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Mike D)

 Northern Harrier (Mike D)

Northern Harrier (Lee)

Merlin (Mike D)

Red-shouldered Hawk (Ann)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Mike D)

Turkey Vulture (Lee)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Mike D)

Other Birds:
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1, Great Blue Heron - 1, and lots 'n' lots of songbirds!

Insects:
Butterflies - Monarch - 31, Cabbage White - 2
Dragonflies - still a few in the air

Monarch (Lee)

Hawkwatchers:
Walter, Mike D, Ron, Liz, Theresa, Dave, Lee, Kris, Peter, Joe, Sheldon, Ann, Allison, Joyce, Norm, Berle, Pat & Nancy, Betty, Cori, Jennifer, and several others.  Thank you everyone for a spectacular day!

Straw Flowers (Ann)

Niagara Falls (Lee)

Weather Prediction:
Decent W and possibly some NW wind for Saturday.  Might be worth going!

Gotta run, see you again soon,
Walter

Oct 11th - 123 Birds, 39 were Falcons!

A lovely Fall day of hawk watching at the park.

At 1:50pm something flew along the bluffs - with only a brief view through the binoculars, it's the first time in my 10 years of watching falcons migrating that my very first thought was "Wow, that's not a Peregrine, it's way too big", and then it went out of view behind the trees.  We'll leave it at that and see what shows up further down the hawk-watching pipeline.....if anything.  The only notes that I can add are, wingbeats were powerful and lighting was not great.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 3
Osprey - 2
Northern Harrier - 9
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 67
Cooper's Hawk - 3
American Kestrel - 23
Merlin - 8
Peregrine Falcon - 5
Unidentified Falcon - 3
Total - 123

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 283
Osprey - 63
Bald Eagle - 70
Northern Harrier - 96
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 617
Cooper's Hawk - 27
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 27
Red-tailed Hawk - 42
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 259
Merlin - 52
Peregrine Falcon - 33
Unidentified Accipiter - 0
Unidentified Buteo - 6
Unidentified Eagle - 0
Unidentified Falcon - 8
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 1586

local Cooper's Hawk (Theresa)

Northern Harrier (Theresa)

Other Birds:
Loon sp. - 2, Eastern Bluebird - 21, and Pine Siskin - 29

Pine Siskins (Theresa)

Insects:
Butterflies - Monarch - 66, Cabbage White - 7, and Red Admiral - 1
Dragonflies - still a few migrating

Orb Weaver spider (Theresa)

Hawkwatchers:
Theresa, Joe, Walter, Allison, Berle, Betty, Manfred, Jennifer, Liz, and Bruce & Ann Falls

Weather Prediction:
I'm going with Environment Canada's forecast for tomorrow - NW wind at 20kms, gusting to 40kms

See you at the fence!
Walter

Oct 9th - 46 Raptors!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 7
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 29
Cooper's Hawk - 4
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 2
American Kestrel - 2
Total - 46

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 280
Osprey - 61
Bald Eagle - 70
Northern Harrier - 87
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 550
Cooper's Hawk - 24
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 27
Red-tailed Hawk - 42
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 236
Merlin - 44
Peregrine Falcon - 28
Unidentified Accipiter - 0
Unidentified Buteo - 6
Unidentified Eagle - 0
Unidentified Falcon - 5
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 1463

Other Birds:
Carolina Wren - 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler - a few
Blue Jay - some still migrating!

Insects:
Butterflies - Monarch - 33 (Betty tagged 10), Cabbage White - 9, Clouded Sulphur - 2, Black Swallowtail - 1, Red Admiral - 1, Orange Sulphur - 1, and Question Mark - 1
Dragonflies - some still migrating!

Hawkwatchers:
Betty, Bill, Walter, Cori, and MC.  Thankyou for a lovely afternoon!

Weather Prediction:
Keep your eye on Friday, it could be good.

See you again soon,
Walter

Oct 5th - 68 Birds, 7 Eagles!

A decent follow-up to yesterday's great day.  We started out the morning with 3 Northern Harriers flying over together only a few minutes after I'd arrived at 7:30am followed shortly thereafter by an Osprey.  We had a fairly steady stream of raptors throughout the morning but then they slowed just after lunch as the wind switched around from NE to E.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 1
Osprey - 2
Bald Eagle - 7
Northern Harrier - 11
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 28
Cooper's Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 6
American Kestrel - 3
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 5
Total - 68

Eagle Time (EDT):
09:25am - BE - 1
10:10am - BE - 2
10:40am - BE - 2
11:07am - BE - 1
12:50pm - BE - 1

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 273
Osprey - 61
Bald Eagle - 70
Northern Harrier - 86
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 520
Cooper's Hawk - 20
Broad-winged Hawk - 26
Red-tailed Hawk - 40
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 234
Merlin - 43
Peregrine Falcon - 28
Unidentified Buteo - 6
Unidentified Falcon - 5
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 1415

Other Birds:
Common Raven - 5, Great Blue Heron - 1, and lots of songbirds, especially very early in the day!

Insects:
Monarch - 2, Question Mark - 1

Hawkwatchers:
Walter, Theresa, Julie, Stephan, Dave, Peter, Ron, Hugh, Jennifer, and Bruce F.  Thankyou!

Happy Thanksgiving,
Walter

Oct 4th - And the Dam Breaks!!!

655 Birds!!!  Glad that everyone got to see lots of raptors today, wished I could've been there.  I'll be sure to be at the park at sunrise tomorrow morning to watch for any leftovers that didn't make it to the sky over Rosetta today.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 179
Osprey - 3
Bald Eagle - 2
Northern Harrier - 40
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 276
Cooper's Hawk - 5
Broad-winged Hawk - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 6
American Kestrel - 127
Merlin - 10
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Unidentified Buteo - 3
Unidentified Falcon - 1
Total - 655

Eagle Time (EDT):
10:40am - BE - 1
05:40pm - BE - 1

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 272
Osprey - 59
Bald Eagle - 63
Northern Harrier - 75
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 492
Cooper's Hawk - 16
Broad-winged Hawk - 26
Red-tailed Hawk - 34
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 231
Merlin - 42
Peregrine Falcon - 21
Unidentified Buteo - 6
Unidentified Falcon - 5
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 1347

Osprey (Kris)

Northern Harrier (Theresa)

Turkey Vulture (Theresa)

Broad-winged Hawk (Kris)

Northern Harrier and the Moon (Theresa)

Other Birds:

Lots of others including a pair of Cackling Geese.

Two Cackling Geese (upper pair) mixing with Canada Geese (Theresa)

Hawkwatchers:

Theresa, Kris, Betty, Hugh, Allison, Ron, Jean, Sheldon, Jim, Dave, Joe, Bruce F, Jennifer, Arvo, Berle, MC, Peter, George, Sharon, Queenie, HK, and several others.  Thankyou everyone!!!

Weather Prediction:

Strong NE wind will start-off the morning then switch to E wind for the remainder of the day.

See you at the fence,
Walter

Oct 3rd - 4 Birds!

Today:
Osprey - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Total - 4

Peregrine Falcon (Ann)

Insects:
Monarchs - 16 tagged.  I was surprised to learn that Terry and Betty's bid to break the World Monarch Tagging Record continues! - LOL!!!

Monarchs - They're still flowing along the escarpment

and stopping at RMG for nectar! (Ann)

A big 'thankyou' to the gardeners at RMG for continually deadheading the Butterfly Bushes and promoting new flower growth throughout the Fall - fantastic job!

Hawkwatchers:
Theresa, Julie, Betty, Terry and Ann.

Weather Prediction:
If all holds, tomorrow afternoon could be really good for hawk watching.  Fairly strong NW wind is predicted.  Good luck if you go, unfortunately I'll be busy elsewhere.

Walter

Oct 1st - 6 Raptors

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Merlin - 1
Total - 6

Merlin (Theresa)

a pair of Turkey Vultures from Sep 15th (Elias)

Other Birds:
Common Raven - 2

Hawkwatchers:
Theresa, Dave and maybe a few others.

Walter

Sep 30th - 11 Birds!

Today:
Osprey - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
American Kestrel - 3
Merlin - 4
Total - 11

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 92
Osprey - 55
Bald Eagle - 61
Northern Harrier - 34
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 213
Cooper's Hawk - 11
Broad-winged Hawk - 24
Red-tailed Hawk - 27
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 104
Merlin - 31
Peregrine Falcon - 20
Unidentified Buteo - 3
Unidentified Falcon - 4
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 682

Merlin and a migrating Monarch (Lee)

Other Birds:
White-crowned Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Kinglets and Warblers

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Lee)

Insects:
Congratulations to Terry, Betty and all that helped - an incredible 2117 Monarch butterflies were tagged between August 9th and September 26th!  Hopefully still more knowledge will be gained about the migration of this beautiful little creature.

Hawkwatchers:
Lee, Dave, Berle, Mark, Ron, and Patti

Weather Prediction:
Good NE wind but raining all day by the looks of it!

See you when the clouds break,
Walter

Sep 29th - Our second best day ever...

...this year - one hundred and four birds!  Big thankyous go out to Berle (morning shift) and Dave (afternoon shift) for keeping count today.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 47
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 38
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 2
American Kestrel - 5
Merlin - 5
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 104

Eagle Time (EDT):
02:38pm - BE - 1

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 92
Osprey - 54
Bald Eagle - 61
Northern Harrier - 33
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 211
Cooper's Hawk - 11
Broad-winged Hawk - 24
Red-tailed Hawk - 27
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 101
Merlin - 27
Peregrine Falcon - 20
Unidentified Buteo - 3
Unidentified Falcon - 4
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 671

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Lee)

Turkey Vulture (Lee)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Lee)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Lee)

Cooper's Hawk (Lee)

American Kestrel (Lee)

Cooper's Hawk (Lee)

Other Birds:
Loon sp. - 3, Blue Jay - lots!

Blue Jay (Lee)

Insects:
Monarch - 75

Monarch (Lee)

Hawkwatchers:
Berle, Dave, Norm, Lynn, Lee and a few others.

Weather Prediction:
Rain!

See you soon,
Walter

Sep 27th - 6 Raptors!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 1
Osprey - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3
Merlin - 1
Total - 6

Other Birds:
Blue Jay - 5000+

Hawkwatchers:
Allison, Theresa, Berle, Mark, Jennifer, plus a couple of short visitors.

Walter

Sep 26th - 61 Birds

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 2
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 29
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 8
Merlin - 3
Peregrine Falcon - 7
Unidentified Falcon - 1
Total - 61

Eagle Time (EDT):
03:30pm - BE - 1

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 44
Osprey - 53
Bald Eagle - 60
Northern Harrier - 30
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 170
Cooper's Hawk - 9
Broad-winged Hawk - 22
Red-tailed Hawk - 27
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 96
Merlin - 21
Peregrine Falcon - 19
Unidentified Buteo - 3
Unidentified Falcon - 4
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 561

Bald Eagle (Theresa)

Osprey (Theresa)

local Red-tailed Hawk (Theresa)

Turkey Vulture (Theresa)

Osprey (Ann)

Other Birds:
Loon sp. (3), Blue Jay (1410)

Insects:
Monarch (400 estimated), Dragonfly sp. (many!)

Hawkwatchers:
Lee, Mark, Theresa, Jennifer, Berle, Julie, Hugh, Ron, Arvo, Barbara, Betty, Walter, Allison and several others who stopped by and looked up.

See you at the fence,
Walter

Sep 22nd and 23rd - Finally...

...an update!!!

Sep 23rd
Merlin - 1

To Date:
Total - 500!!!

Hawkwatcher:
Lee

_______________________


Sep 22nd
Turkey Vulture - 8
Osprey - 3
Bald Eagle - 9
Northern Harrier - 7
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 23
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 8
American Kestrel - 4
Merlin - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 67

Eagle Time (EDT):
10:27am - BE - 1
11:09am - BE - 1
11:15am - BE - 1
11:29am - BE - 1
12:05pm - BE - 1
12:11pm - BE - 1
12:29pm - BE - 1
12:33pm - BE - 1
02:29pm - BE - 1

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 40
Osprey - 51
Bald Eagle - 59
Northern Harrier - 26
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 141
Cooper's Hawk - 8
Broad-winged Hawk - 21
Red-tailed Hawk - 27
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 88
Merlin - 18
Peregrine Falcon - 12
Unidentified Buteo - 3
Unidentified Falcon - 3
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 499

Cooper's Hawk (Mike D)

Osprey (Mike D)

Red-tailed Hawk (Lee)

Red-tailed Hawk (Lee)

Merlin (Mike D)

Red-tailed Hawk (Lee)

Red-tailed Hawk (Mike D)

Red-tailed Hawk (Lee)

Other Birds:
Loons (84), local Cooper's Hawk (1), local Red-tailed Hawks (3), local Merlin (1), plus a nice assortment of other species.

Rusty Blackbirds (Mike D)

Mammals:

(Mike D)

Insects:
Monarchs - 250 (estimated)

(Lee)

Hawkwatchers:
Walter, Mike D, Theresa, Phil, Bruce M, Kris, Julie, Jennifer, Ron, Peter, Ann, Berle, Betty, Dave, Kade, Rosemary, Sonja, Eleanor, Jean, Joyce, Lynn, Mike, Jim, Lee and many others who stopped by.

Thankyou everyone!
Walter