Beamer Conservation Area, Grimsby, ON. March 7. 2024. I decided on a whim, to see what the show was like at one of the area’s best hawk-watching spots, Beamer Conservation Area. Beamer provides a fairly wide-open park enclosed by forest and is perched on a promontory that is a natural bottleneck for the hawk migration of spring. We use the term ‘hawk’ collectively to pretty well include all birds of prey from eagles to Merlins. Hawk migration has its mini-seasons and March is the time for a short-lived pulse of Red-shouldered Hawks that accompanies the usual straggle of Red–tailed Hawks and Turkey Vultures.
I didn’t stay very long, I was not adequately dressed for the cold winds that sweep across Lake Ontario, I was there on a whim remember. But that short stop was quite rewarding, and my first sighting was of a couple of Northern Harriers, some way off but distinctive in their buoyant and languid flight. I got my desired spring sighting of Red-shouldered Hawks as half a dozen drifted over in ones and twos. Two Turkey Vultures, a Cooper’s Hawk and half a dozen Red–tailed Hawks was it before I decided to leave. I’ve been hawk watching at Beamer almost every spring for 45 years, I used to be one of the hardies who’d spend hours watching spectacular flights of hawks or, just as often, nothing but puffy white clouds. I’ve seen many changes over those years.
After leaving Beamer, I visited two spots reliable for early arriving spring ducks. The first one a flooded quarry holding a handful of Ring-necked Ducks, two Common Mergansers and a fleet of Canada Geese. They were as expected and appreciated. The second stop was a sheltered field flooded with ponds of meltwater and holding Mallards, Green–winged Teal and Northern Pintails, all a long way off but I was happy to see them.
My Birds of the Day were the Red-shouldered Hawks just because, like the Tundra Swans of last week, they are not to be missed. And they’re lovely.