Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 16, 2017 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 21355 23120 24865 Osprey 1 7 67 Bald Eagle 17 30 114 Northern Harrier 35 79 296 Sharp-shinned Hawk 442 903 2771 Cooper's Hawk 29 64 106 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 26 27 33 Broad-winged Hawk 11 12 4337 Red-tailed Hawk 139 151 188 Rough-legged Hawk 2 2 2 Golden Eagle 6 7 7 American Kestrel 31 141 1362 Merlin 4 13 68 Peregrine Falcon 1 127 156 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 2 Total: 22099 24683 34374 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Bob Johnstone, Tom Thomas Observers: Chris Burris, Dave Sked, Don Taylor, Eric Single, Ernie Gribble, Jason McGuire, Keith Sealy, Mary Carnahan, Matt Oswald, Richard Tofflemire, Ronnie Goodhand, Tom Stewart, Tom Thomas Visitors: A HUGE thanks to the whole crew that was out today to help with Bob J as official counter along with Ernie, Matt, Don T, Eric, Chris, Mary, Ronnie, Keith, Tom T, Dave S, Jason and Richard and Andalyne T and Roberta and Mark B. We did have some visitors including Gina McDonnell, Mark Hawryluk and several others whose names I didn't get. Weather: Wow! What a difference from yesterday...with heavier cloud cover to start the day then breaking out to a mix of sun and cloud then finally to pure blue skies with not a cloud in sight. Temp was quite cold to start the day at 1C and got to a high of 10C. Winds were perfect... light to moderate from the NW for the day. Raptor Observations: A fantastic day for watching raptor migration! A big flight today with a total of 22,099 birds tallied and we got 14 of the typical species seen at this site... missing out ONLY on Northern Goshawk! The bulk of the flight was TVs (21,355) and this is definitely a conservative count as there were ALWAYS TVs in the sky right from the time they started till when the last counters left at 5:00 EDT and they were STILL COMING! They formed some truly spectacular kettles right out to the east of the observation knoll and at times extended right from just above tree top height to the bottom of the clouds. These were some of the tallest kettles we've ever observed at Hawk Cliff. It was great for the visitors today because the TVs are so easy to see (unlike the mile high BW kettles... lol). Other highlights for the day... several Golden Eagles (6) including one adult looking bird. A couple of these provided some great views and were photographed. Also seen were Roughies (2)...1 Dark Morph that sat in a tree to the north of observers and a Light Morph that crossed just to the south. We had all 3 Falcon species with Am. Kestrels (31), a few Merlins (4) and a lone Peregrine. Just a single late Osprey, several Broadwings (11), some very nice Red-shoulders (26) including several adult birds, Redtails (139), a good number of Bald Eagles (17) with several immature / sub-adult looking individuals. And for Accipiters we had lots of Sharpies (442) and Cooper's Hawk (29)... and finally N. Harriers (35) with at least 3 adult male birds. Non-raptor Observations: Just a TON of passerines / non-raptors on the move today as well with some surprises... a Common Raven that flew right north above the bushlot across the field...several warbler species... BT Green (male and female), Nashville (that foraged ten feet from observers on the observation knoll), Magnolia, N. Parula, Yellow-rumped, Orange-crowned and Blackpoll. Also, YB Sapsucker, N. Flicker, Pileated, Downy, Hairy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Brown Creeper, Winter Wren, GC and RC Kinglets (everywhere!), White-throated, White-crowned, Savannah, Vesper, Song and Field Sparrows, Hermit and Wood Thrushes, Eastern Bluebirds, Am. Robins, Am. Crows, Am. Goldfinch, Am. Pipits, Horned Larks, Eastern Towhee, Eastern Phoebes, Purple Finch, Common Loons, Common Grackles, Cedar Waxwings, BC Chickadees, WB and RB Nuthatches, Tree Swallows (7), Red-eyed Vireo, Brown Thrasher, Canada Geese, E. Starlings and N. Cardinals. Blue Jay count: 1490 Monarch Count: 29 Green Darner Predictions: Pretty much back to moderate SW winds for tomorrow and in fact it looks like the rest of at least this week. It's hard to say if there's any more Peregrines to come though SW winds help. Otherwise, most other species will likely be pushed inland away from the hawk watch. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Dave Brown (thebrowns@ezlink.on.ca) Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch information may be found at: http://www.ezlink.ca/~thebrowns/HawkCliff/index.htm More site information at hawkcount.org: http://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=392