At Holiday Beach Conservation Area!
Few locations in the world allow people to closely experience and photograph birds in migration. A photo location such as the Holiday Beach Conservation Area allows for amazing photo opportunities of great variety of bird species, from raptors to songbirds to waterfowl. Plan to visit the area in the fall during a sunny day with soft north-western winds and you have an excellent chance to photograph migrating raptors in huge numbers.
Sharp-Shinned Hawk during fall migration in Ontario. Perfectly adapted for high speed hunting in the woods, the Sharp-Shinned Hawk is preying almost exclusively on small birds, including Blue Jays and Chickadees. In fall, they migrate from as far north as Central Alaska and Northern Territories to wintering sites in Central and South America.
My preferred location to photograph in the park is the Hawk Tower, probably the best location in Ontario to capture raptors in flight. According to the Holiday Beach Migration Observatory, the local geography at Holiday Beach causes hundreds of thousands of migrating raptors to pass over the area during the fall migration season (late August through early December).
Join HBMO at the Festival of Hawks held each year in September and prepare to witness large numbers of raptors funnelling along the Lake Erie shore on their way towards southern wintering locations.
What Else Can You Photograph At Holiday Beach Conservation Area?