Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 10, 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 8 45 49 Bald Eagle 6 9 9 Northern Harrier 17 73 78 Sharp-shinned Hawk 155 329 337 Cooper's Hawk 4 4 4 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 6 11 11 Red-tailed Hawk 0 0 0 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 140 612 621 Merlin 0 9 9 Peregrine Falcon 0 13 13 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: 336 1105 1131 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Mary Carnahan Observers: Don Taylor, Ernie Gribble, Jim Dunn, Keith Sealy, Mark Cunningham, Ronnie Goodhand, Steve Birch Visitors: Visitors today were Marty and Edith from Kitchener; Mike and Anne from Winnipeg. Weather: We had beautiful weather today for hawk watching, with comfortable temperatures ranging from 16 in the early hours to 24 by the end of the watch, with humidity dropping throughout the day from 77 % in the first hour to less than 50% by the end. Very comfortable for humans and apparently for birds as well. The wind was strong from the ENE to start and swung around to the ESE for the afternoon, but had gone south by the very end. Raptor Observations: The raptors seemed to agree that it was great weather for migrating, resulting our total of 336 raptors from 7 (seven!) species including Osprey (6), Bald Eagle (6), Northern Harrier (17), Sharp-shinned Hawk (155), Cooper’s Hawk (4), Broad-winged Hawk (6), and American Kestrel (140). There was also a lot of activity from Bald Eagles that we decided were locals, mainly because they were flying at the cliff, often flying quite low, despite the easterly component to the winds which made everything else fly really high. As well, we had a number of Bald Eagles fly eastward along the cliff, which is the usual pattern for the locals – fly east, fly west, and back, and forth, and so on. Those that were counted were flying high at the north end of the field. Towards the second last hour of the day, a few Kestrels started hunting as they went west, making it difficult to keep tabs on them. For several minutes one or two, or even three, Kestrels would stop in mid-flight and begin hovering over the field in front of us, diving, and then hovering again. It was entertaining to watch, but at least one observer really had to keep tabs on these birds, making sure that eventually they all exited westward. And eventually, they did. Many thanks to Don, Ernie, Keith, Steve, Mark, Ronnie and Mary for their assistance in “keeping tabs”. Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptor highlights included 4 Great Egrets seen from the observation knoll, a New Species for this season and what a lovely sight! The first one flew east across the field, then veered north and went down in the woods across from the knoll, where we know there is at least one pond. The other three came together, flying eastward along the cliff, then veered out over the lake to the south. None of the egrets appeared to be tagged. About halfway through the watch, a Kingfisher that we had heard calling from below the cliff appeared to the south. It flew low right across the observation knoll giving everybody great views. Also seen from the observation knoll were a few Barn Swallows and numerous Tree Swallows, mainly during the morning hours. Other highlights today included a couple of Swainson’s Thrushes, Caspian Tern, flocks of Goldfinches, and 10 Warbler species which were Magnolia, Black-throated Blue, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green, Black and White, Bay-breasted, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Wilson’s and Common Yellowthroat. Butterflies today were Monarch, Viceroy, Black Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Orange and Clouded Sulphur and Eastern Tailed Blue. Predictions: Northerly winds are expected for Friday though they are now predicting rain for a goo dpart of the day. Still any birds in the pipeline may make a run for it ahead of this big low pressure system that is supposed to cross the Great Lakes region Friday and Friday night. NOTE...The forecast for the weekend has also changed just in the past few hours and they're now calling for NORTHERLY winds both Saturday and Sunday with only a small chance of rain. These northerly winds are setting up from a line just south of the James Bay area all the way down to the lower lakes. It's possible this will bring the first good push of Broadwings...so let's hope the forecast holds. ======================================================================== 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