Hi Folks, The Hawk Cliff hawkwatch is up and running for another season and I wanted to get at some sort of report out to everyone. Some of our volunteers have actually been doing counts since late August (I'm still playing catch up on entering the data for the days covered so far). They've seen some movement of Osprey, Kestrels and Sharpies. They've also reported good numbers of passerines in the hawkwatch area including some nice warblers. A big thankyou to them for all their long hours. so far....especially those days with very few birds!
Today's flight was excellent for early September and I just wanted to post a brief summary. Total birds tallied for the day ...658. The bulk were Kestrels (461) and Sharpies (156). Other species included Osprey (13), N. Harrier (19), Cooper's (3) and Merlin (5). Only a single Broadwing was spotted passing the hawkwatch...but the next week should bring the bulk of this species through. For those that are interested...I'll also mention that the movement of Monarchs today was amazing. A couple of individuals at the cliff edge decided to start counting how many a minute were passing. Over the course of 3 hours they were reaching 100-130 Monarchs a minute! This didn't even include those crossing the entire hawkwatch area ...just those right along the cliff. If we're lucky many of these will roost in the trees in and around the hawkwatch and be there early tomorrow morning. The winds and weather look promising for tomorrow (Fri) with North 15kph predicted and lots of sunshine. For directions and events check out the HCF website at the following link: http://www.ezlink.ca/~thebrowns/HawkCliff/hcf_directions.htm Good birding! Dave _______________________________________________ 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/
