Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 26, 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 24 44 44 Osprey 2 111 115 Bald Eagle 8 56 56 Northern Harrier 35 397 402 Sharp-shinned Hawk 258 4017 4025 Cooper's Hawk 6 48 48 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 1 1 Broad-winged Hawk 0 12907 12907 Red-tailed Hawk 2 36 36 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 13 1494 1503 Merlin 0 51 51 Peregrine Falcon 2 30 30 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 350 19192 19218 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Mary Carnahan Observers: Keith Sealy, Richard Skevington Visitors: A few visitors today including Mike Lehey & Ann Black (Kirkland Lake)...and a big thanks to the counters and observers... Mary, Keith and Richard Skevington. Richard got out the scope and was very helpful in IDing the birds. Weather: Another beauty day to be out and about but not for a great raptor migration ad count. A cool morning and rising to a high of 22C...with a light North-northeasterly breeze, switching to Easterly and then South East. These conditions typically result in an extremely high height of flight and the birds crossing inland to the north. A good mix of sun and cloud for the entire count period. Raptor Observations: A total of 350 raptors were tallied today. Most of the flight consisted of Sharpies (258) and a bit of surprise N. Harriers (35). We did observe the first migrating TV's for this season, one group of thirteen and one group of eleven very high and streaming west. A number of Bald Eagles were also counted, High and going West. Two Peregrines motored thru the watch area, the second being harrassed by a Kestrel, making a great comparison of big and small Falcons. Non-raptor Observations: No comments from the woods today, as folks were too busy trying to spot those high raptors; nevertheless, there were some interesting non-raptor sightings from the observation knoll, including about 10,000 Blue Jays which crossed the field in large flocks from early morning to about noon, which is approximately when they usually seem to stop flying west for the day and instead, just mill about in the tree lines and in the woods, chattering and flying back and forth. However, at the end of the watch (3:00 PM), just to cap the day, a flock of at least 75 Blue Jay gathered in the treeline opposite the knoll, moved about, chattering, within that concentration of trees for a few minutes, and then dashed westward across the field. Interesting and, in our observations, rather different behaviour during the Blue Jay migration. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Dave Brown (thebrowns@ezlink.on.ca) Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch information may be found at: http://www.ezlink.on.ca/~thebrowns/HawkCliff/index.htm