By Paul Pratt

Holiday Beach Migration Observatory (HBMO) has just completed its 49th year of fall raptor counts at Holiday Beach Conservation Area.  Each fall we count hawks passing by the hawk tower at Holiday Beach as well as other diurnal migrants on a daily basis from September 1 to November 30.  The dedicated counter this year was Nicole Shangi under the guidance of Hugh Kent, HBMO hawk count coordinator.

This year 135,910 migrating hawks of 15 species were tallied along with impressive numbers of other migrants such as 713,537 Blue Jays.  Here is a chart comparing this fall with last year.  2022 was the third highest hawk count ever recorded, largely due to the excellent count of Broad-winged Hawks.