Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 10, 2021 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 12 31 34 Bald Eagle 21 48 50 Northern Harrier 25 72 77 Sharp-shinned Hawk 42 83 84 Cooper's Hawk 0 4 4 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 4263 4688 4688 Red-tailed Hawk 2 2 2 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 65 235 262 Merlin 6 14 14 Peregrine Falcon 0 3 3 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: 4436 5180 5218 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:30:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 5.5 hours Official Counter: Chris Burris, Tom Bolohan Observers: Chris Burris, Dave Brown, Matt Oswald, Tom Bolohan Visitors: A couple of visitors today ... Matt and Jessica who were great observers and helped with today's spotting of raptors and thanks to Matt O, Chris B and Tom B for doing today's count with me. Weather: Temps ranged from 13C to 21C. The wind was moderate and mostly N to start, switching to NW, about 15 km/h with occasional gusts. Cloud coverage was extremely variable, but with lots of sun patches and texture as the day progressed. Raptor Observations: One of the best hawk watching days I've seen in the past few years with near perfect conditions weather wise resulting in a very good flight today with 4,436 raptors tallied. The bulk of today's raptors were Broad-winged Hawks (4,263) and involved lots of kettles right above or just north of the hawk watch area. Several kettles formed with between 100 - 200 Broadwings in them (sometimes with a few other species joining them) and at least 3 kettles exceeded 500 BWs. We were able to do a reasonably accurate count today as the flight height and great backdrop of clouds made them quite visible especially as they streamed out of each kettle to the west. There was also a decent number of N. Harriers today (25) along with Am. Kestrels (65), Ospreys (12), Bald Eagles (21 - almost all immatures that were tallied with only a couple of adults that were counted as they were way up with the BWs and streaming hard to the west) and a few Merlins (6). Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptors included: Canada Goose, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, American Crow, Blue Jay, American Goldfinch, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Mourning Dove, Song Sparrow, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Indigo Bunting, Rock Pigeon, Barn Swallow, Red-bellied Woodpecker, House Wren, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Cardinal, Cliff Swallow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Warbling Vireo, Northern Flicker, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Least Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Red-eyed Vireo, Black-capped Chickadee, Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Palm Warbler, Purple Finch, and Semipalmated Plover. Predictions: Fairly strong SW winds are predicted for Saturday which may bring some birds right along the cliff edge (Osprey, Bald Eagles, N. Harriers and any of the falcon species). ======================================================================== Report submitted by Dave Brown ([email protected]) 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 -- Ontbirds and Birdnews are moderated email Listservs provided by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) as a service to all birders in Ontario. Birdnews is reserved for announcements, location summaries, first of year reports, etc. To post a message on Birdnews, send an email to: [email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Birdnews Moderators by email at [email protected]. Please review posting rules and guidelines at http://ofo.ca/site/content/listserv-guidelines During the COVID-19 pandemic, all Ontario birders should be taking extra precautions and following local, provincial, and federal regulations regarding physical distancing and non-essential travel. To find out more about OFO, please visit our website at ofo.ca or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists.
