Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 24, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 1 1 Turkey Vulture 445 20377 20385 Osprey 0 9 62 Bald Eagle 4 188 240 Northern Harrier 5 211 542 Sharp-shinned Hawk 14 1732 3728 Cooper's Hawk 2 106 151 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 6 123 127 Broad-winged Hawk 0 8 1301 Red-tailed Hawk 17 573 629 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 3 18 19 American Kestrel 0 222 1386 Merlin 0 26 74 Peregrine Falcon 1 42 61 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 1 1 Total: 497 23638 28708 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 4 hours Official Counter: Dave Brown Observers: Chris Burris, Michelle Carnerie, Ronnie Goodhand Visitors: A few visitors today including a number of the folks from the Salthaven Wildlife Rehab and Education Centre who were fun to have helping us out. Thanks to Chris, Ronnie and Michelle for helping get today's count done. Weather: A pleasant day for hawk watching today with a temp that held around 10C to 11C. Lots of blue skies early then building in with cloud a bit in the late morning. Winds were VERY light from the NW and then backed (as forecast) very quickly to the W. Raptor Observations: Today's flight was 497 birds with mostly TCs (445). There were small numbers of Sharpies, Redtails, Red-shoulders and N. Harriers and a real bit of excitement when a passing young Cooper's Hawk came bursting through a set of trees right behind us and flushed out a starling that it then chased right over us and across the nearby field before giving up. Highlights today were 3 Golden Eagles and a single Peregrine Falcon that passed over us VERY high headed westbound. Non-raptor Observations: We had a couple of Common Ravens that were vocalizing behind us and then flew right over us headed eastbound together. Quite a few Eastern Bluebirds were on the move today and we had a good sized flock of approx. 70 American Pipits. For a complete list see the eBird checklist at the following link: https://ebird.org/checklist/S200142263 And as a final note... a single Monarch was spotted flying past midday. Predictions: The winds are swinging back to SW for the day Friday so the only birds you might spot would be along the cliff. However, looking ahead to Saturday... IF the forecast holds the winds are forecast to be moderate to strong from the NW with a mix of sun and cloud which should bring a much better flight. Given the numbers of Golden Eagles noted on Discord today from the York region let's hope they get to the Hawk Cliff area for Saturday. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Dave Brown (ez.raptor1210@gmail.com) Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch information may be found at: http://www.ezlink.ca/~thebrowns/HawkCliff/index.htm More site information at hawkcount.org: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=392