Sep 14th - A Late-day Push of Eagles

A dark overcast threatening sky made for a slow start to today's hawk watch but once things finally got underway all was grand!  Today's flight basically was from far over Kingston Road to way out over the lake, birds were flying everywhere...and many were high up!  A nice finishing touch to the day was when we counted 8 Bald Eagles in the span of 37 minutes.  They crossed the sky high up above the center of the park flying along an invisible line like Red-tailed Hawks usually do later in the season.  Always spectacular to see!

I said to Hugh early this morning that my prediction for the day was that we'd see 350 birds, we missed it by 4 birds!  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 13
Osprey - 7
Bald Eagle - 10
Northern Harrier - 11
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 177
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 56
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
American Kestrel - 57
Merlin - 3
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 346

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 39
Osprey - 31
Bald Eagle - 62
Northern Harrier - 48
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 424
Cooper's Hawk - 9
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 232
Red-tailed Hawk - 21
Rough-legged Hawk - 0

Golden Eagle - 0

American Kestrel - 141

Merlin - 24

Peregrine Falcon - 6

Total - 1037

Eagle Time (DST):

12:55pm - BE

02:41pm - BE

03:43pm - BEx2

03:57pm - BEx2

04:02pm - BE

04:05pm - BE

04:16pm - BE

04:20pm - BE

 A beautiful young Northern Harrier (Ann)

 An American Kestrel (Ann)

A low flying Turkey Vulture (Ann)

Other Birds:

American Goldfinch - many small flocks

Blue Jay - several small flocks

Canada Goose - a few small flocks

Cedar Waxwing - several small flocks

Loon sp - 6

Red-bellied Woodpecker - another quick flyover!

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - several still flying through

Butterflies:

Clouded Sulphur - 1

Common Buckeye - 1 flying overhead

Fiery Skipper - 2

Monarch - 1000 estimated (43 tagged)

Orange Sulphur - 1

Fiery Skipper (Lynn)

Celery Looper Moth (Lynn)

Mammals:

American Red Fox - 1 (seen recently by park staff)

People:

Hugh, Bruce F, Kris, Jean, Ron, Betty, Berle, Dave, Ann, Norm, Carol, Kevin, Terry, Bruce G, Lee, Eleanor, Lynn, Mike D, Manny, our remote spotter this morning Sarah, plus several others who stopped by.  Thankyou everyone!

HMCS Ville de Québec (Ann)

Weather Prediction:

Tomorrow we have NE wind and sunny skies which will make spotting the hawks a bit of a challange.  Bring your chair!

Keep lookin' up!

Walter