Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 06, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 1 1 Turkey Vulture 358 1391 1399 Osprey 1 6 59 Bald Eagle 21 93 145 Northern Harrier 5 64 395 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 268 2264 Cooper's Hawk 5 24 69 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 9 13 Broad-winged Hawk 0 7 1300 Red-tailed Hawk 0 38 94 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 1 American Kestrel 1 71 1235 Merlin 2 10 58 Peregrine Falcon 29 34 53 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: 424 2016 7086 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:30:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 10.5 hours Official Counter: Tom Bolohan Observers: Ken Wootton, Mac McAlpine, Ronnie Goodhand, Su Ross-Redmond Visitors: Lots of visitors today including folks from the K-W Birding club and the University of Guelph. I'm glad that our expectation of a good Peregrine flight came to fruition! A big thanks to Tom B, Mac M, Ronnie G, Su R and Ken W for helping with spotting and ID'ing the birds for everyone and getting the count done for today. Weather: Well the forecasters got the winds correct as we saw strong SSW and SW winds for the day right up the cliff. Luckily the rain associated with the passing cold front stayed far to the north but also provided lots of cloud cover for the day before mostly clearing out as the front passed. Temps started at 14C and got to a high of 23C. Raptor Observations: The bulk of today's flight of 424 birds were TVs (358). However, as predicted on the strong SW winds the highlight today was the Peregrine flight with a total of 29 of these speedsters. This is definitely one of the better one day flights for this species in a while. It's great that these birds showed up today for the many visitors that were down to the site! Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptors were not reported for today. Check out the number of eBird checklists submitted for the Hawk Cliff hotspot today to see what non-raptors were around. Predictions: The next 2 days (Monday and Tuesday) are looking promising for raptor migration with winds forecast to be moderate to strong from the NW both days across the entire southern Ontario region along with a mix of sun and cloud. This should push migrant raptors down towards Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and the hawk watch sites along their shorelines. Typically, the 2nd day of NW winds (in this case Tuesday) will often have a larger flight. The TUV (thermal updraft velocities) are also supposed to be pretty good both days but especially on Monday with a TUV forecast of up to 500 ft/min... which basically means if thermals do form the birds will be able to get a very nice lift as they soar. ======================================================================== 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