This year’s Festival of Hawks was a special one as the Holiday Beach Migration Observatory (HBMO) celebrated its 50th anniversary.
At the Holiday Beach Conservation Area in Amherstburg, the weekend was marked with a cake cutting that many volunteers of the HBMO, including Bob Pettit, took part.
“I started bird watching when I was 10. My mother was an avid birdwatcher,” said Pettit during his interesting presentation, “Identifying Hawks in Flight” last Saturday.
Ospreys, vultures, falcons, eagles, accipiters and buteos were just a few of the species that those attending learned about.
Pettit had lots of helpful information including not putting birdseed out for backyard cardinals if you don’t want hawks to snatch them up. He also said that 80 percent of fledgings never live to be a full year old.
“They run into windows, they run into cars, they run into predators. If they all lived it would be unbelievable. They would be eating everything.”
The annual Festival of Hawks is about education and for Devin Davidson, he got a chance to adopt a banded Eastern Screech Owl, which, to the delight of on-lookers, was released back into the wild.
There was a good possibility that when Essex Region Conservation Authority’s Jessica Rose hosted the sold-out Own Prowl Experience later that night, Davidson’s owl might be spotted.
According to Phil Roberts, who assisted Davidson, the HBMO captures birds and collects a lot of data by measuring, weighing, determining their gender and giving them a serial number for further reference.
“If 5,000 fly over, we might catch 50. It is an aging population,” explained Roberts.
One of the highlights of the weekend was being able to climb up the Hawk Tower which has been on site since 1988. According to the HBMO, counts have revealed that in 2016, there were 1,185 ring-necked ducks spotted, 264,410 blue jays in 1991, and the year it all started, 1984, 95,499 broad-winged hawks were noticed.
“You are in one of the best places in North America for migration. Nothing wants to cross the Great Lakes,” said Roberts.
Hugh Kent, president of the HBMO said more than 100,000 volunteer hours have gone into calculating information for banding.
“If we don’t know what the birds are doing, we can’t ensure their future survival,” said Kent.
The Essex Region Conservation Authority owns and maintains Holiday Beach and according to CAO Tim Bryne, HBMO has been very dedicated to conservation.
As part of the official ceremonies on Saturday to mark the 50th Anniversary milestone, there was cake-cutting, and acknowledgements and well wishes on behalf of Essex MP Chris Lewis and Amherstburg Mayor Michael Prue.
“There is a little bit of heaven here in Amherstburg,” said Prue of the HBMO and the ERCA site. “Thank you for protecting our environment.”
Also, on the weekend there were numerous displays by area conservation groups including the Purple Martin Society, Wings Rehab and Jack Miner’s.
Family fishing at the trout pond, birding hikes and a presentation on native plants for ponds were all part of this year’s Festival of Hawks.
To donate to the HBMO, visit their Canada Helps site at www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/50-years-and-counting-2.
Festival of Hawks includes celebration of milestone
By Fred Groves
Comments