Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 06, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 353 574 Osprey 0 1 59 Bald Eagle 3 18 152 Northern Harrier 4 22 385 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 86 3427 Cooper's Hawk 1 7 54 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 3 32302 Red-tailed Hawk 0 13 64 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 1 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 1 106 1402 Merlin 2 4 55 Peregrine Falcon 5 19 45 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: 17 632 38520 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Dave Brown Observers: Chris Burris, Ken Wootton, Matt Oswald Visitors: Quite a few visitors to the site today and unfortunately, many only saw the local Bald Eagles flying back and forth along the lake shore. A big thanks to Matt, Ronnie, Ken W and others who helped with today's count and stuck it out for so long. Weather: Winds today were near perfect initially moderate from the WSW and getting to strong right out of the SW. Heavy cloud cover that nearly qualified as fog limited visibility for the first couple of hours before the skies started to break out. Temps still fairly warm starting at 15C and getting to a high of 19C. Raptor Observations: Well... sometimes despite the great conditions and timing for this point in the season, the hoped for larger Peregrine flight never materialized. The total birds tallied for today was just 17 of which just 5 were Peregrines! Definitely one of the slowest days I've had at the hawk watch in a while (especially given the conditions and spending 10 hours watching). Non-raptor Observations: I have to mention that one of the big surprises today was spotting a VERY large group of Northern Flickers all together in the tops of some dead trees across the field from the observation platform... with over 30 counted and 19 of those in ONE TREE! I actually took a photo of the tree with the largest bunch in it and you can see it in my eBird checklist for the day. https://ebird.org/checklist/S151671949 Other non-raptors today included Gray Catbird, Carolina Wren, Blue Jays (several 100s), N Cardinals, Am Crow, N Flicker, Am Robin, BC Chickadee, Common Loon, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, a juvenile DC Cormorant, And for MONARCHS we had 300+ with a fairly steady stream throughout the day despite the strong SW winds. Amazing how they move westward even though they're being blown around so much. ======================================================================== 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