Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 26, 2014 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 456 26157 26277 Osprey 0 35 118 Bald Eagle 5 46 104 Northern Harrier 6 259 652 Sharp-shinned Hawk 61 4337 8913 Cooper's Hawk 4 190 260 Northern Goshawk 1 11 12 Red-shouldered Hawk 18 365 365 Broad-winged Hawk 0 155 70719 Red-tailed Hawk 100 1871 1897 Rough-legged Hawk 0 4 4 Golden Eagle 25 50 50 American Kestrel 2 705 2450 Merlin 2 37 79 Peregrine Falcon 1 118 163 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 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1 Total: 681 34340 112064 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Dave Brown Observers: Cary Graham, Chris Burris, Dave Verkley, Eric Single, Ernie Gribble, Jason McGuire, Jim Dunn, Keith Sealy, Mark Cunningham, Mary Carnahan, Matt Oswald, Ronnie Goodhand, Tom Bolohan Visitors: A pile of visitors and observers today so I won't list them all here...but a big thankyou to everyone who helped today in such difficult viewing conditions. Weather: The weather looked perfect to start the morning with lots of bright sunshine and a few patches of cloud to our east...BUT only 6 birds for the first 2 hours!?!? Hmmm...at this point we were scratching our heads wondering what was going on. We figured the winds were actually a bit more W than we thought. However, by the 3rd hour the winds had definitely gotten round to NW and picked up and the birds start to pass through in better numbers. The abundant sunlight got the thermals going and we soon discovered that the height of the flight was outside of naked eye viewing for many of the birds. The temp hit a high of 12C but felt much warmer in the sunlight. At one point the clouds built up and then simply dissipated making finding the birds a real challenge. Raptor Observations: Ah...what a difference a day makes. It took a while for the flight to get going but eventually we observed birds on the move and by the end of the day the total was 681 birds. The big story for the day was as we'd hoped...Golden Eagles with a total of 25 for the day! The first one wasn't spotted till the 3rd hour after which we tallied at least one or more every hour for the remainder of the day with 1, 5, 2, 4, 5 and a whopping 7 to finish off the count period! Several of these birds were visible with the naked eye (and even provided a few photo ops) while a few others were dark specks even in 10X binos and had to be scoped to ID them. These birds provided an excellent mix of plumages...some with huge patches of white in the base of the primaries and across the tail deck... with one in particular that was completely dark lacking even a faded yellowish band across the tail deck. Awesome! Meanwhile, the Sharpies were certainly not seen in any numbers today with only 61 counted. Cooper's Hawks also were seen in much smaller numbers with just 4. Another good bird for the day was an adult Goshawk that snuck through low to the north of us right along the north side of the ravine trees...of course on the WRONG side of the treeline for viewing! Other species included a smaller flight of Redtails (100) and Red-shoulders (18)...a good number of Bald Eagles though just 5 were tallied as migrants. At one point there were 4 together in a mini kettle and a couple of times they came from the W (behind us) and passed directly overhead no more than 20m up! A lone adult Peregrine was spotted by Chris B. to the north again very low along with a couple each of speedy Merlins and Kestrels. Only 6 Harriers were counted though one appeared to be an adult male. Non-raptor Observations: Today's non-raptor highlight was a Common Raven that passed low over the treeline at the ravine followed by severak Am. Crows which provided for easy size comparison. Similar sightings for non-raptors today as has been seen for the past several days with a pile of Am. Robins passing through the hawkwatch area along with Pine Siskins, Cedar Waxwings, a few Eastern Bluebirds, WT Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Am. Pipit and Horned Larks. Also 3 separate flocks of Tundra Swans headed eastward and a few Common Loons headed directly out over the lake. Other species included a single RB Nuthatch, a nice Pileated Woodpecker that came from behind us and landed in the trees across from us with its red crest glowing as it was backlit by the sun. Also had Downy, Hairy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers and a single N. Flicker. Still seeing RC Kinglets with NC Chickadees, a couple each of Yellow-rumped warblers and Hermit Thrushes. Unfortunately, I can't find the note I wrote for insect sightings so all I can mention is a single Monarch butterfly. Predictions: A lot of cloud for Monday and predicted SSE winds will mean not much of a flight and in fact the whole week is looking less than optimal with SW and W winds right through to Friday. ======================================================================== 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