Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 26, 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 2 508 24872 Osprey 0 1 124 Bald Eagle 0 23 173 Northern Harrier 0 48 1015 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 42 8386 Cooper's Hawk 0 10 219 Northern Goshawk 0 0 7 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 33 334 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 13000 Red-tailed Hawk 2 881 2681 Rough-legged Hawk 0 9 11 Golden Eagle 0 20 78 American Kestrel 0 3 1937 Merlin 0 4 93 Peregrine Falcon 0 0 76 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: 4 1582 53006 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 5 hours Official Counter: Mary Carnahan Observers: Keith Sealy Visitors: No visitors. Weather: A very mild day, but a bit gloomy, with a brightening trend now and then, although the cloud cover did persist all day. Wind was gusty and by early afternoon it was wild down at the Cliff. The day started with S winds that went SSW by 11:00 AM and pretty much stayed there. Barometric pressure went down and humidity went up, temperature remained very mild reaching 12 C by the end of the watch. Raptor Observations: Early this morning 7 TVs were doing the circuit from the Port Stanley water tower (intersection of East Rd and Dexter Ln) to Dexter Ln / HC Rd and back again. As well, a local juvenile Red-tailed Hawk spent a good part of the day perch-hunting from the wires along Dexter Ln. A local pair of Red-tails kited along the Cliff off and on throughout the watch. Another local Red-tail pair did a synchronized aerial display along the northern treeline at the B&B. But for countable migrants, at the end of a 5-hour watch, we had only 2 each of Turkey Vulture and Red-tailed Hawk for a total of 4 migrants, with 1 species of raptor. A Northern Harrier and at least 3 Red-tails had come into view beyond the treeline opposite the B&B, but one by one, they all went down and just didn't come up again so were not counted. Non-raptor Observations: Again today, a lot of local passerines were hunkered down out of the wind and as it was very windy right along the Cliff which is the usual hotspot for sparrows (the south end of HC Rd) that whole area seemed deserted. One persistent observer managed to coax out 2 Am. Tree Sparrows and that was it! 2 Red-bellied Woodpeckers were found today, but no others. A flock of Horned Larks was seen dashing westward along the Cliff and once the wind went SW, Ring-billed and Herring Gulls started cruising the cliff. A highlight was a single Bonaparte’s Gull. Other highlights were found at Sharpie Alley (Blue Jays, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Am. Robin and a flock of Am. Goldfinches) and at the B&B including Great Blue Heron and 4 Eastern Bluebirds. Predictions: The forecast for Friday is not great – persistent cloud, rain and gloomy skies with very mild temperatures and SW winds that will swing W by mid-afternoon, but the rain will continue until late Friday evening and maybe even into the wee hours of Saturday morning. Wind will shift overnight Friday into Saturday through W to NW to N to NE for Saturday morning and skies will begin to clear out. Saturday will be much cooler with moderate NE winds in the morning but lighter in the afternoon. That Northerly flow will continue into Sunday – good news, but the wind velocity may not be sufficient to bring us a really good flight. Nevertheless, this is the best forecast we’ve had in some time so think positive thoughts! Think Golden Eagles!! ======================================================================== Report submitted by Mary Carnahan (mcarnhan@rogers.com) Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch information may be found at: http://www.ezlink.on.ca/~thebrowns/HawkCliff/index.htm