Tis the season for raptors and waterfowl

Yesterday the winds were quite brisk from the northwest...perfect for watching migrating raptors somewhere along the north shore of Lake Erie. The mix of sun and clouds would only enhance the viewing opportunity. Some of the best raptor diversity shows up in mid to late October, including Golden Eagles. I spent several hours in the vicinity of the Morpeth Cliffs.

Turkey Vultures were abundant, going by in kettles and streams.

Streaming vultures

The array of wind turbines didn't seem to affect their route as far as I could tell, but I must admit I don't really know what is going on in the mind of a vulture!

There was the typical array of Red-tails, Kestrels and Sharpies (the hawk, not the marker). They were too far away for photos, and several of the buteo type raptors looked like Red-tails, but later I found out that a juvenile Swainson's Hawk was seen east of Wheatley. I wish I had been able to get clearer looks at some of those distant buteos that I chalked up as Red-tails!

I did get some eagles: two Bald and one Golden. They were too far away for photos as well, so I dug into my archives for these.

Bald Eagle

Golden Eagle

The benefit of being along the Morpeth Cliffs is that if the skies do not have anything going on, one can always look out over the lake. There were about 130 Common Loons, 2 Red-throated Loons and lots of waterfowl and gulls. A scope was necessary to see most of them, so again the camera didn't get much of a work-out.

Today I decided to go to a few places along Lake St. Clair. The Mitchell's Bay North Lake Shore Trail always has something of interest with its mix of wetland and prairie.

Great Egrets were still around.

There were lots of sparrows, mostly White-crowned.

A huge flock of mixed blackbirds was in the area. Of note were a few Rusties and a young Yellow-headed. I didn't get any pics of the Yellow-headed.

Along the Mitchell's Bay South Lake Shore Trail were a few of the same things, but also a couple of Eastern Phoebes.

A bit surprising was this fresh looking Common Buckeye.

Not in nearly as good a shape was this Virginia Opossum.

 Possums are well-known for playing dead. This one wasn't just playing.

A stop at St. Clair National Wildlife Area resulted in seeing a ton of waterfowl. If one had the patience, one could probably find more than 20 species of waterfowl there right now. I saw almost 15 in just a few minutes, including one of my favourite ones: Ring-necked Duck. There were at least 40 in one spot that I checked.

Canada Geese were constantly in the air.

I was hoping for some Greater White-fronted Geese, but did not find any on this visit.

Tundra Swans are beginning to arrive. I saw about 160, but in just a few weeks there will be tens of thousands passing through.....a wonderful spectacle unless you live right near by and, according to some folks I know who live right across from the NWA, their constant calls can keep you awake at night!

Some hawk migration observations

Hawk migration is just getting well underway these days, as one can see from the various hawk watching reports. Hawk Cliff just south of St. Thomas, Holiday Beach in southwestern Essex County and the Detroit River Hawk Watch in eastern Michigan adjacent to the Detroit River, are the best known and most prolific sites in the region. Daily watches since about the first of September have resulted in between 1300 and almost 2000 birds being recorded passing through so far.

These migrating raptors follow the Lake Erie shoreline, since they don't like to cross large open stretches of water, and exit the province where the water is the narrowest. Hence places along the Detroit River are where the birds are eventually most concentrated.

However before the birds get to the Detroit River many pass through southern Chatham-Kent, and near the shoreline is often a good place to watch from. Winds from the NE-N-NW are typically good conditions to help the birds to move.

Yesterday, Saturday Sept 13, the winds were fairly brisk from the N-NW which is usually favourable. However the heavy overcast conditions were not the best for hawk watching, at least initially, but when the forecast indicated some clearing in the afternoon, I ventured out. But I went to a more local place. The shoreline east of Rondeau and south of Morpeth is one of the better locations. And since a rare Swainson's Hawk had been reported from the Hawk Cliff site the day before, I was hoping I could find it passing through the Rondeau area!

Initially there wasn't much movement. Almost immediately a single Sharp-shinned Hawk flew through fairly low down. I decided to get my camera ready in anticipation of more action. The raptor movement was rather sporadic, which is par for the course. From time to time, there were several birds in view, and then there were stretches of 10-15 minutes or so without a single bird to be seen.

As the sky cleared a bit, the birds got a little more active. Overall in the almost two hours I was there, I observed 34 raptors of 7 species: Sharp-shinned Hawk--14; Cooper's Hawk--1; American Kestrel--2; Broad-winged Hawk--2; Merlin--1, Bald Eagle--7; Turkey Vulture--7.



Photography wasn't the easiest, since much of the sky was still partly cloudy. And the birds were on the move, of course, and mostly quite distant. However I got a few shots.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

 This isn't the normal profile one expects of a Broad-wing on migration. However due to the brisk wind and cloudy skies, there weren't any thermals of rising air to float upwards and along on. So today their wings and tail weren't showing the typical look.

Broad-winged Hawk

Bald Eagle juvenile

Bald Eagle adult

It is possible that one of the sub-adult eagles I saw was double counted, so I may have only seen 6, not 7. At one point I did have three eagles in view simultaneously. Photos of these birds were a challenge. Even though the camera set-up I was using was the equivalent of a 12X binocular, with the birds being mostly a kilometre or more away, I had to do some heavy cropping to even get these!

Alas, I didn't see a Swainson's Hawk. But I did see this.

Gashawk (not a raptor :-)

The Broad-winged Hawks should be moving in large numbers in the next week or so. Mostly sunny skies with light NW winds are ideal for them to move in substantial numbers. Usually upwards of 100,000 of them are recorded from one or more of the hawk watch sites over the course of the season. On one occasion several years ago, the Holiday Beach site recorded about 80,000 in one day! Kettles of them can be seen almost anywhere slightly inland from the Lake Erie shoreline. I am looking forward to getting out again soon!