Rosetta McClain Gardens Raptor Watch

Sep 14th - 3 Birds!

Today:
Bald Eagle - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2

Eagle Time (EDT):
01:00pm - BE - 1

Other Birds:
Blue Jays (500+)

Insects:
28 Monarchs tagged. Very few butterflies in the gardens today. Quite strange considering how lovely the weather was.

Hawkwatchers:
Hugh, Betty, Allison, Walter, and Cori. Thankyou.

Weather Prediction:
Nothing really promising for the weekend. Keep your eye on Wednesday - at present The Weather Network says NW wind.

Walter

Sep 12th - 3 Birds!

Today:
Bald Eagle - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1

Insects:
51 Monarchs tagged.

Hawkwatchers:
Sheldon, Terry, Betty, and the Mood group.

Walter

Sep 11th - 26 Raptors!

This morning was a bit of a head-scratcher for those who gathered at the fence - decent NW wind, beautiful sky, no birds! Thankfully just before mid-day things started to pick up.

Today:
Osprey - 8
Bald Eagle - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 9
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 4
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Total - 26

Eagle Time (EDT):
11:43am - BE - 1

To Date:
Osprey - 35
Bald Eagle - 42
Northern Harrier - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 25
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 16
Red-tailed Hawk - 7
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 23
Merlin - 7
Peregrine Falcon - 5
Unidentified Buteo - 1
Unidentified Falcon - 1
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 169

Other Birds:
Loons (5), Common Ravens (3), a Great Blue Heron and a Belted Kingfisher. Lots of Warblers and other songbirds about the park.

Insects:
An estimated count of 2500 Monarchs passing over the park. Terry, Betty, and Kade managed to capture and tag 172 of them. Fantastic work!

Hawkwatchers:
Theresa, Walter, Sheldon, Bruce F, Manfred, Allison, Brian and Carol, Sonja, Lynn, and MC. Thankyou everyone for another fun-filled day.

See you again soon,
Walter

Sep 10th - A Correction and an Update.

Correction:
Back on September 6th in the early afternoon the hawkwatchers that were gathered at the park witnessed a large dark raptor circling along over the park with a buddy, a Turkey Vulture. Was it another vulture or was it a juvenile Bald Eagle? With no distinct markings whatsoever on the underside and poor lighting I laid back on the bench to study what I could. The two features that stood out for me were the head and the wings. The head did not appear to protrude out like that of a Bald Eagle but also didn't appear to be that of a Turkey Vulture either. As for the wings, they just appeared different than the vulture's, especially at the tips and the trailing edges. Also there was no distinct dihedral (like TVs display) in the wings as it soared and the bird didn't rock in the wind as TVs do. This bird really left us confused and scratching our heads. Any later in the season and I would've called it a Golden Eagle but not without discussion, of course. We did have one heck of a talk about what it possibly was and eventually concurred that putting it down as an 'unidentified raptor' was the best solution to our problem - although I was still slightly leaning towards a GE.

Move ahead 2 days to the 8th and doesn't the Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch in Port Stanley get a Golden Eagle! Their report read, "The big surprise today was a Golden Eagle that was very low as it passed through right overhead. The bird had a faded off-white band across the tail deck and dull golden feathering on the nape of the neck but was otherwise completely dark and had a smaller head than a Bald. This is one of a very few Golden Eagles that have ever been recorded in the month of September at Hawk Cliff." Of note, during our sighting at Rosetta on the 6th, the bird's tail was never spread open and lighting was not on our side to notice the colouring of the nape of the neck. All birds for the day appeared as silhouettes and hard to identify.

For those who do not totally understand the relationship between our raptor watch location and the Port Stanley location, it's really quite simple. Because of the way in which raptors and other birds navigate around the Great Lakes during fall migration, many birds flying down over eastern Ontario and western Quebec run in to a natural barrier in the Great Lakes. They don't like to fly over large bodies of cold water as they do not provide the hot air thermals the birds need in order to migrate efficiently. They must then follow the north shore of Lake Ontario until they reach the west end and then turn southward. They eventually arrive at Lake Erie and must follow it's northern shoreline all the way to it's west end, just south of Windsor. Then they're free to fly south as they please. The length of time it takes for a large bird to pass over the Rosetta McClain Gardens Raptor Watch and then eventually over the Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch depends on a number of factors including wind and weather. With favourable conditions it could easily be done in 2 days. We did not have any unfavourable weather over the span of those couple of days and the wind was blowing down from the north - the direction that keeps the birds hugging the shorelines. I personally don't see any reason why the Golden Eagle observed at Hawk Cliff was not the exact same big dark bird that we saw over Rosetta 2 days earlier therefore I'm adding it to our count. If you're not happy with that, then take your bins elsewhere to play - lmao!!!

This is actually our 3rd Golden Eagle observed in the month of September ever. The previous early date was on the 19th in 2006 and the other was on the 30th in 2015.

Update:
Lee had an Osprey fly over the Watch during the afternoon yesterday (Sep 9th). She also saw the local Cooper's Hawk and a Search & Rescue Helicopter.

Osprey (Lee)

local Cooper's Hawk (Lee)

Search & Rescue (Lee)

To Date:
Osprey - 27
Bald Eagle - 41
Northern Harrier - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 16
Broad-winged Hawk - 12
Red-tailed Hawk - 7
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 23
Merlin - 6
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Unidentified Buteo - 1
Unidentified Falcon - 1
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 143

See you again soon, maybe even tomorrow!
Walter

Sep 7th & 8th - Eagles, Osprey, and Others!

RMG Raptor Watch
7th September 2018

Today:
Osprey - 2
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Merlin - 2
Total - 7

Hawkwatchers:
Theresa, Julie, Sheldon, Ron, Walter, Pat & Nancy, Hugh, Norm, Bruce F, Berle, Mark, Lee, Murray, and several others. Thankyou!

_________________________

RMG Raptor Watch
8th September 2018

Today:
Osprey - 11
Bald Eagle - 16
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 8
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Merlin - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Unidentified Falcon - 1
Total - 42

Eagle Time (EDT):
07:45am - BE - 1
08:01am - BE - 1
08:56am - BE - 1
09:07am - BE - 1
09:09am - BE - 1
09:23am - BE - 2
09:28am - BE - 1
09:47am - BE - 1
10:39am - BE - 1
10:52am - BE - 2
11:25am - BE - 1
11:32am - BE - 1
12:27pm - BE - 1
04:43pm - BE - 1

To Date:
Osprey - 26
Bald Eagle - 41
Northern Harrier - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 16
Broad-winged Hawk - 12
Red-tailed Hawk - 7
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 23
Merlin - 6
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Unidentified Buteo - 1
Unidentified Falcon - 1
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 142

Some of today's excitement...

Osprey (Mike D)

Bald Eagle and Monarch butterfly (Mike D)

Bald Eagle (Mike D)

local Red-tailed Hawk (Mike D)

Bald Eagle (Mike D)

local Turkey Vulture (Mike D)

Other Birds:
Loons (12), Common Ravens (2)

Common Raven (Mike D)

Insects:
Monarch butterflies - Another likely under-estimated count of 3000!

Hawkwatchers:
Phil, Sheldon, Mark, Bruce Massey, Walter, Mike D, Allison, Ron, Bruce & Ann Falls and their son Rob, Norm, Ed, Cori, Bruce Ferry, Lee, Susan, Ella, Ben, plus several others who stopped by. Thankyou everyone for a spectacular day!

Weather Prediction:
East wind (The laziest wind) for Sunday and rain tonight.

See you all again soon,
Walter

Sep 6th - 42 Raptors!

The NE wind keep the birds up high today and cloud cover made identification challanging at times.

Today:
Osprey - 4
Bald Eagle - 11
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 9
Red-tailed Hawk - 5
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 6
Merlin - 1
Unidentified Buteo - 1
Unidentified Raptor - 1
Total - 42

To Date:
Osprey - 13
Bald Eagle - 25
Northern Harrier - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 6
Broad-winged Hawk - 12
Red-tailed Hawk - 6
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 22
Merlin - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Unidentified Buteo - 1
Unidentified Raptor - 2
Total - 93

Eagle Time (EDT):
10:22am - BE - 1
10:31am - BE - 1
10:39am - BE - 1
11:10am - BE - 2
11:21am - BE - 1
01:21pm - BE - 2
03:45pm - BE - 2
03:48pm - BE - 1
??:?? - GE - 1

Other Birds:
Loons - 8
Common Nighthawk - 1

Insects:
Monarchs - 12,000
Dragonflies - thousands!

Hawkwatchers:
Walter, Sheldon, Theresa, Sophie, Allison, Berle, Bruce F, Anthony, Chris, Terry, and Betty. Thank you everyone!

Weather Prediction:
Similar NE wind will be blowing throughout the morning and switching to E by lunchtime. Birds will likely be flying high again.

See you again,
Walter

Sep 3rd - An Update

Sorry folks for the lack of updates lately, I had a slight computer malfunction - the hard drive died.

Here's what I have for the last few days...

August 31st
Broad-winged Hawk - 1 (Theresa)
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1 (Bruce F)
Bald Eagle - 1 (02:07pm) (Cori)
Merlin - 1 (Cori, Walter)
Osprey - 1 (Cori, Walter)
Total - 5

September 3rd
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1 (Bruce F, Walter)
Bald Eagle - 1 (Betty, Hugh)
American Kestrel - 2 (Sheldon)
Total - 4

To Date:
Osprey - 9
Bald Eagle - 14
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 4
Broad-winged Hawk - 3
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 16
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Unidentified Raptor - 1
Total - 51

Please let me know asap if you've had other sightings that are not listed above of any of our 15 raptor species passing over rosetta and heading west. The local raptors don't count. ; )

See you again soon,
Walter

Aug 30th - 30 Raptors, 15,000 Monarchs

With a moderate N-NE wind throughout the morning and in to the early afternoon, it turned out to be a fairly good late August day. A few of us were still at the park at 6:00pm but mostly just to talk. At day's end we had added the following to the count...

Today:
Osprey - 4
Bald Eagle - 10
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 13
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 30

To Date:
Osprey - 8
Bald Eagle - 12
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 14
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Unidentified Raptor - 1
Total - 42

Eagle Time (EDT):
10:06am - BE - 1
11:12am - BE - 1
11:33am - BE - 1
11:39am - BE - 2
11:49am - BE - 1
12:38pm - BE - 1
01:44pm - BE - 1
02:25pm - BE - 2

An interesting 'hawk watching' moment came late in the afternoon as we watched the local Cooper's Hawk and local Merlin go at it over the east end of the park and eventually out over the lake. As they returned back over the bluffs the Coop's interest switched to an incoming Osprey. They went at one another all the way across the park and out the west side. This battle produced two firsts for me - I've never seen an Osprey get so pissed at another raptor and, I've never seen an Osprey do the 'talons up' flip - not once but several times! Very cool!!!

Other Birds:
Turkey Vulture (local), Cooper's Hawk (local), Merlin (local), Eastern Bluebird (6), Common Nighthawk (7), and a couple of Great Blue Herons.

Insects:
Monarch migration was amazing today with a very likely under-estimated count of 15,000! Many many times I could see 10-15 monarchs at once in my binoculars without scanning. They filled the sky at all heights. Dragonfly migration picked up as the day progressed.

Hawkwatchers:
Bruce F, Jean, Berle, Sheldon, Ron, Glen, Trudy, Cori, Lee and myself. Thankyou everyone!

See you again soon,
Walter

Aug 27th - Updated Raptor Count

To Date:
Osprey - 4
Bald Eagle - 2
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Unidentified Raptor - 1
Total - 12

This beautiful Merlin appears to be staying in the area (Julie)

See you soon,

Walter

Aug 22nd - NW Wind, 7 Raptors!

Today was a great day to get out and enjoy the weather, the company of others and also to watch a few early migrants fly over the park. Although maybe not as exciting as we'd hoped but we did have an adult Bald Eagle fly over the center of the park and sometimes that's all you really need!

Today:
Osprey - 3
Bald Eagle - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Unidentified Raptor - 1
Total - 7

To Date:
Osprey - 4
Bald Eagle - 2
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Unidentified Raptor - 1
Total - 10

Eagle Time (EDT):
02:05pm - BE - adult

Other Birds:
Turkey Vulture, Cooper's Hawk, and Red-tailed Hawk (all local birds). Many migrant songbirds are starting appear throughout the park including Warblers, Vireos, and Flycatchers.

Insects:
Butterflies - A good variety was observed again today including yet another Giant Swallowtail! Monarch migration continued with an estimated count of 125. Betty had a busy day catching and tagging 60 of them. A decent number of dragonflies are starting to appear in the sky over the park.

Hawkwatchers:
Bruce F, Theresa, Ron, Berle, Hugh, Cori, Betty, Ann, Chris, Sheldon, and myself. Thankyou everyone!

Weather:
Thursday starts out with NW wind but will swing around to SW before the morning ends.

See you again soon,
Walter

Aug 14th - Mid-August Update

Hi folks,

You would never know it by this ridiculously hot and humid weather but it's getting close to that time when the big birdies decide to head south for the winter. From what I understand, this year's Watch will be run much the same as it was last year with people volunteering their time when they can to watch for raptors. Please stay tuned for further details.

For those interested, a few Hummingbirds have been visiting the raised gardens that surround the fountain feeding mostly on the Black & Blue Salvia. Also, at least one of the local Red-tailed Hawks has been hunting the park and has been fairly successful at picking-off small birds and animals.

Butterfly observations have been fantastic throughout the Gardens since August 1st with a total of 19 species being identified.

Monarch butterfly tagging began on the 9th and will continue until all 2000 tags have been used up. Terry and Betty have been quite busy already with a total of 93 Monarchs being tagged over the first five days!

A few, okay a dozen butterfly photos while we wait for raptors. As always, for best views of photos on this blog - 'click' to enlarge and then use your arrow keys to navigate.

Monarch (Walter)

Cabbage White (Walter)

Black Swallowtail (Walter)

Question Mark (Walter)

Silver-spotted Skipper (Walter)

Great Spangled Fritillary (Walter)

Peck's Skipper (Walter)

Eastern Comma (Walter)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Walter)

Viceroy (Walter)

Clouded Sulphur (Walter)

Summer Azure (Walter)

...and 1 local raptor

Red-tailed Hawk (Walter)

Photos of raptors in flight coming soon!

Walter

'Statistics' Updated

The 'Statistics' section, which is found in the right-hand column of this blog depending on the device you're using, has now been updated to include the 2017 hawk-watching season. How you arrive at this section using other devices, such as cell phones is your problem - LOL!!! Anyway, you can click on the various links there to view and/or download all the numbers from over the years. Once the Dropbox page opens you might get a popup box asking you to either join or sign-in. If not interested just click on 'No thanks, continue to view' at the bottom of it. Once the page that contains the file has loaded, move you cursor down to the bottom of the screen and a box should appear that will allow you to expand the file to full screen for easier viewing. Remember, I said 'should', that's how it works on my computer anyway. Once finished viewing, click on the X in the top right-hand corner and then use the back-arrow to return back to the raptor watch page. Good luck and enjoy!

Walter

Wind (current)