Aug 6th - Gusting NW Winds Bring Our First Two!

Finally!  Today with winds blowing down from the north-west we saw our first raptors over Rosetta.  Between about 10:00am-12:30pm we were entertained by the flyover of 5 different species.  Although we are still not really in to fall migration by any means I'm going to count 2 of the birds that we saw.  Heck, at this early stage of the game I really don't even know which birds are locals as yet.  Anyway, we can always make changes later on if need be.

It was a much more comfortable day at the park with the wind and cooler temp.  Lots of people though!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 8 (flying as a group - all locals for now)
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1 (local)
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 2 (1 adult, 1 juvenile - both local for now)
American Kestrel - 1
Total - 3

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 0
Osprey - 0
Bald Eagle - 0
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 0
Cooper's Hawk - 0
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 0
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 1
Merlin - 0
Peregrine Falcon - 0
Total - 3

Our first Broad-winged Hawk (Walter)

Click on the above photo to enlarge it and look at the variation
in the outer tail feathers - they resemble those of a juvenile.  This
is an adult bird.  My thanks to Kris for sharing an article from
raptor expert Jerry Liguori on this subject.

Other Birds:

Great Blue Heron - 1

Chimney Swift - 2

Butterflies:

Monarch - 1 (possibly 2)

Great Spangled Fritillary - 1 (our 13th different species in six days!)

Fiery Skipper - 2 (both female)

Peck's Skipper - 1 (female)

A worn Great Spangled Fritillary (Walter)

A very fresh looking female Fiery Skipper (Walter)

Another female Fiery Skipper (Walter)

A fresh looking female Peck's Skipper (Walter)

Mammals:

Eastern Cottontail - 1

Hawkwatchers:

Kris, Carol, Gunnar, Allison, and a view others who stopped by.

Weather Prediction:

Aug 7th - Sunny, NW 15km/h gusting to 29km/h (The Weather Network)

Conditions look good!  Let's see what happens!

Walter

Aug 1st - Day One!

Day one of the 'build-up' to the Hawk Watch is now in the books.  If you missed it, you missed nothing!  As predicted, there was too much heat and humidity to really enjoy the day.  On the happier side I did see and talk with a few our hawk watching friends who were out for some fresh air.  Being that today was a holiday, there were a lot of people out so I stayed away from the main garden area.  I did do a bit of searching around the park but just sitting and relaxing on a bench in the shade and chatting was far more enjoyable!

The highlight of the day was seeing 2 Common Ravens which circled over the north side of the park just above the trees.  Earlier I watched a Turkey Vulture circling in the same area.  My thought was that there was likely a dead animal up on Kingston Rd or possibly a little further north on Danforth Ave.  The local crows were quite aware of what was happening up there!

Something to watch for:  I was informed that there's a Red-eyed Vireo feeding a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird over in the north-west section of the park.  Might make a cute picture!

The following is what I saw today to get our Fall Species Survey underway...

Birds:
Double-crested Cormorant, Turkey Vulture (local), Sharp-shinned Hawk (local), Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Caspian Tern, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Common Raven, Bank Swallow, Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, American Robin, Gray Catbird, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Yellow Warbler, Northern Cardinal, Common Grackle, Baltimore Oriole, American Goldfinch, and House Sparrow

Mammals:
Eastern Gray Squirrel

Butterflies:
Black Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Orange Sulphur, Cabbage White, Monarch, Red Admiral, and Silver-spotted Skipper

As I mentioned in my last post, my time at the park will be 'hit and miss' right now due to the heat.  Again, no need for you to rush to the park.  Stay cool!

Walter

July 30th - Here We Go Once Again!

Hi everyone,

Well, here we go once again, season thirteen of the Hawk Watch at Rosetta!  It's hard to believe, especially with all the heat and humidity but it's that time of year when we start to watch the sky for the big birds heading south along the north shore of the lake.  As most of you know, the migration will be extremely slow for at least the first couple of weeks.  Migration will start to pick up as we near the end of August and head in to September so there is no reason for you to rush to the park.  With the present high heat and humidity, my time there will be 'hit and miss' at best.  During the past couple of days I've made a few trips to the Gardens and I can assure you that there isn't much happening.  Few birds and few butterflies!  It will pick up tho!

I look forward to everyone's return to the Watch and also look forward to meeting a few new faces as well this season.

See you soon along the fence at Rosetta!

Walter

A New Hawk To Watch For This Fall

Just saw this in the Toronto Star - click here

Walter

Special Post - Monarch Tag Recoveries Doubled!!!

Please click Monarch Butterfly Tagging to see the latest update.

Walter

Special Post - Monarch Migration Presentation

This coming Tuesday evening Terry will be doing another talk on the Monarch migration that we enjoy each fall during the Hawk Watch at Rosetta.  With 4 of Rosetta's 'tagged' Monarchs being found in Mexico earlier this year, this presentation should be quite interesting.

Fall Monarch Migration at Rosetta McClain Gardens
Presenter:  Terry Whittam
7:00PM - Tuesday April 12th, 2016
Taylor Memorial Library (Kingston Rd at Warden Ave)

Everyone is welcome.

Walter

American Kestrel's Head Stabilization

I received this short clip from Pat this morning and thought I'd share it with you.  Enjoy!

I guess when they're sitting atop a swaying tree they want to be totally focused on their potential next meal.  Amazing.

Walter

And It Continues...

Hi all,

The excitement continues! 2 more tags recovered as recorded in the latest listing from Diane Purden. Many thanks to Carol Pasternak for sending.

UBB017 Tagged Sept 21 Male .6g 52mm wing, cond 3 - recovered at El Rosario
UBA827 Tagged Sept 9, Male cond 3 - recovered at Cerro Pelon Mexico

Both tagged at Rosetta McClain Gardens in Scarboro!

That makes an unbelievable 4 recoveries! 

Good tagging

Terry

Another Special Post - Another Tag Recovered!!

Well if one wasn't amazing enough, how about two?  I was searching through more photos of Monarch butterfly tags that Brenda Dziedzic had posted to her Facebook page (Brenda's Butterfly Habitat) and I found another one of our tags from Rosetta.  This one was UBA 842.  The Monarch was tagged on September 9th, 2015, it was a male and it's overall condition was rated '3' (good).  At that time Terry had not received his measuring equipment so no weight or wing size was noted.  The tag was recovered in Mexico on February 23, 2016 by Adelina Fajardo at Cerro Pelon near the town of Macheros.  We thank Brenda, Carol Pasternak, and the other ladies for their efforts in retrieving these and all the other tags and of course, we thank the people of Mexico who work so hard to find the tags on the forest floor.  At present we still don't fully understand why the tags are being sold-off.  Once Brenda and Carol arrive back from Mexico we will see what they can tell us.

Walter

Special Post - Tag Recovered!

One of our 'tagged' Monarch butterflies has been found in Mexico!!!

An extremely excited Terry informed many of us via email late Sunday night that he had noticed one of his butterfly tags in an online photo.  The Monarch butterfly tag was in a photo that Carol Pasternak (The Monarch Butterfly Crusader) had posted to her Facebook page earlier in the day.  Carol, along with Brenda Dziedzic (Brenda's Butterfly Habitat) and several of their butterfly-loving friends are currently in Mexico up in the mountain region (Cerro Pelon) where the Monarchs spend their winters.  The area is officially designated as The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.  Local workers in the Reserve comb the forest floor through thousands and thousands of dead Monarchs in search of ones that have identification tags attached to them.  In turn the workers are paid money for recovered tags that they report.  Apparently, and we're not sure why just yet but tourists there buy the butterfly tags off of their tour guides - hopefully we'll get some sort of clarification on just what the heck this is all about soon!  Anyway, the tag that Terry noticed in the photo was one of his that he had purchased online, it was UBA 905, a tag that Betty (Terry's helper) had applied to a Monarch butterfly back in the fall at Rosetta.  Terry searched through his tagging records and found the following information:  the butterfly was tagged on September 18, 2015, it was a female, it weighed .57g, it's wing measurement was 60mm, and it's overall condition was rated 4 (5 being pristine), the day was sunny with a temperature of 27 degrees Celcius!  Great stuff!

Here is a slightly edited version of the photo containing the tags...

(click photo to enlarge)

Here is a map showing a 'direct-line' path from Rosetta to the wintering grounds in Mexico...

(click photo to enlarge)

The direct-line distance from Rosetta down to the wintering grounds is slightly more than 3300 kms!  We know butterflies get blown around a lot in the wind and also veer off-course for other reasons so it's extremely likely that this lady travelled much much further on her journey south.  It's just amazing how they can do it!

I'll post further details as I get them.

Congratulations to Terry and to Betty for a job well done!  How exciting!

Walter

Feb 15th - A New Raptor ID App!

Hey folks!  Thought that you might be interested in this new raptor identification app from Jerry Liguori and HawkWatch International and The Cornell Lab or Ornithology.  It's available for your android and apple devices.

Walter

Dec 15th - It's Over! Thankyou All!

LOL - The 'extended' part of our hawk watching sure didn't prove to be very fruitful at all.  Oh well, we tried.  I was at the park today for roughly two hours and it sure was quiet all around - no birds and no people!

Thankyou to everyone who came out this fall to help search, identify, and photograph the birds, bugs, animals, and flowers.  What a wonderful time we had together!