Hey Folks, Here's a quick update what's been happening the last few days at the Hawk Cliff hawkwatch. For some reason I haven't bee able to access the Hawkcount website for the last couple of days....and that's how the ONTBIRDS reports are usually generated...not sure what the issue is...
So....in a nutshell. We've had over 20,000 Broadwings in 2009 and it would appear the majority of BW's have passed through for this season. Our flight on the 24th was not bad with 613 raptors tallied....just 58 BW's...the highlight was 8 Peregrines....not surprising given we're approaching their prime timeframe. Bird of the day was actually a non-raptor....a SEDGE WREN discovered by one of our volunteer counters Mary Carnahan. The flight on the 25th was smaller with 333 birds counted....222 of which were Sharpies...and with two back-to-back hours which totalled 44 birds (not that I see a pattern here!) ....and we recorded the first of the juv Redtail Hawks that appeared to be migrating and not just hanging around locally. The SEDGE WREN continued to be seen and was photographed by a visitor from Ottawa. The flights on the 26th and 27th (today) were small with 33 and 37 birds respectively. Today actually took a while for the wind to get around to the SW and gain strength....and this brought 8 more Peregrines for this fall. There were many good passerines earlier in the day....including the SEDGE WREN, Tufted Titmouse, Brown Thrasher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, YB Sapsucker...quite a few warblers. For those that are interested in the Monarch migration ...they were really moving through in good numbers today...often being seen in clusters of 3 to 5 at a time...many landing on the surrounding clumps of asters. This movement continued for most of the day even with the onset of fairly strong SW winds. The next couple of days look somewhat dubious with gale force winds from the SW and rain for Monday and then gale force NW winds pn Tues. (which normally would be quite interesting) but again with a good chance of rain, On the other hand, Wed. and Thur. look promising with N winds and sunshine. Dave Brown Hawk Cliff Foundation _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
