Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 03, 2024 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 1 1 Turkey Vulture 96 532 540 Osprey 0 3 56 Bald Eagle 43 54 106 Northern Harrier 19 31 362 Sharp-shinned Hawk 5 27 2023 Cooper's Hawk 3 10 55 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 1 5 Broad-winged Hawk 0 4 1297 Red-tailed Hawk 0 11 67 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 1 American Kestrel 35 46 1210 Merlin 2 5 53 Peregrine Falcon 0 2 21 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: 203 727 5797 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 13:30:00 Total observation time: 6.5 hours Official Counter: Chris Burris Observers: Dave Brown, Matt Oswald, Ronnie Goodhand Visitors: Lots of visitors today and so it was unfortunate we didn't get any Peregrines... but many were new to the hawk watch and definitely enjoyed seeing all the low flying Bald Eagles and Northern Harriers. Thanks to Chris B, Ronnie G, Matt O and several others for helping get a count done today. Weather: Well the weather was as forecasted with moderate SW winds for the entire day and mostly sunny skies with a little bit of cloud around. Temps ranged from 11C to start to a high of 23C (still pretty warm for this point in the season). Pressure was fairly steady for the count period. Raptor Observations: Total raptors counted today was 203. Given the near perfect wind direction from the SW right up the cliff and that we're literally in the historic PEAK time for Peregrines to move it seems remarkable that we didn't have a single Peregrine today! Instead the Bald Eagles were the stand-in species They were flying past as the sun peeked over the eastern horizon and headed west along the cliff edge. In fact we had 23 go through in the 1st hour alone. The local pair went after several of these immature/sub-adult looking birds often chasing them relentlessly till they had moved on to the west. The total Bald Eagles tallied for today was 43 which is one of the higher daily count for this species in a while. A number of Am Kestrels (35) and N. Harriers (19) took advantage of the great updraft at the cliff edge zipping past without flapping. A few Cooper's Hawks (3) and Sharpies (5) passed along with a small flight of TV (96) as well. Also a couple of Merlins. Non-raptor Observations: We did manage to spot some non-raptors today with a nice highlight a couple of Tufted Titmouse vocalizing right over our heads before flying off together north along the tree line. For a complete list of species seen check out the following eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S197399025 I should mention for those interested in the Monarchs... yesterday (Wed) we noticed the Monarch flight pick up when the winds swung around to the SW as we were wrapping up the count with I'd estimate 100+ in that last hour. Today there was a strong Monarch push and I was estimating easily 150-200 per hour and they never stopped for the entire 6 and 1/2 hours we were there. At times they even tried settling into a few small roosts right in the trees beside the viewing platform. Predictions: The forecast for Friday is for light and variable winds which means it won't focus the migrant raptors done to the lake shore. It's hard to say how the flight might be. ======================================================================== 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