Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch
Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 26, 2024
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
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Black Vulture 0 1 1
Turkey Vulture 3472 23849 23857
Osprey 0 9 62
Bald Eagle 22 210 262
Northern Harrier 32 243 574
Sharp-shinned Hawk 118 1850 3846
Cooper's Hawk 24 130 175
American Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 6 129 133
Broad-winged Hawk 1 9 1302
Red-tailed Hawk 119 692 748
Rough-legged Hawk 8 9 9
Golden Eagle 44 62 63
American Kestrel 7 229 1393
Merlin 7 33 81
Peregrine Falcon 0 42 61
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
Swainson's Hawk 0 1 1
Total: 3860 27498 32568
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 9 hours
Official Counter: Tom Bolohan
Observers: Barb Charlton, Brett Fried, Chris Burris, Dave Brown,
Dave Verkley, Ken Wootton, Mac McAlpine, Ronnie Goodhand
Visitors:
There were a ton of visitors today that came to hang with us at "Sharpie
Alley"! They included groups from the OFO, Mike Cadman and a bunch from
Nature Guelph, William Konze and others from the Kitchener-Waterloo area,
Brett Fried and Barb Charlton and lots of the regular counters (Tom B,
Chris B, Mac M, Ken W, Ronnie G, Dave V, Derek and Laura) and many more. At
one point I counted over 70 hawk watchers which is definitely one of the
higher visitor totals at Hawk Cliff this late into the season!
Weather:
Kind of a weird day today weatherwise with much of ut near perfect for
raptor migration and then we'd have a patch of very localized rain showers
move through to our NE and then out over the lake and it would clear back
out again to blue skies with nice cumulus clouds. Winds were great today
moderate from the NW and temps started at 5C and got to a high of just 10C
and pressure was on the rise.
Raptor Observations:
There was evidence that the birds were finding lots of thermals to ride
today with some good kettles of TVs and often a few buteos mixed in with
them. Many of the birds crossed over the hawk watch at significant
altitude. The total birds tallied today was 3860.
We had a fantastic flight of Golden Eagles (44) for the day with many
providing wonderful close views and photo ops. At times we had multiple
Goldens flying through over the hawk watch at the same time including 4
that soared up together before heading westward. This is one of the
highest daily counts of Golden Eagles that's been recorded at Hawk Cliff
and given the banders to our north tallied another 21 (the bulk of which we
could not see from our vantage point) the actual number of Golden Eagles
crossing through this area today likely exceeded 60 birds.
Another nice surprise was the good number of Rough-legged Hawks (8 - all
light morphs) many of which passed nice and low providing visitors with
wonderful views. The Cooper's Hawks have begun moving with a decent count
today of 24 and many of the Sharpies (118) noted today were adult birds.
Other buteos passed through with Redtails (119) and Red-shoulders (6) and a
very late Broad-winged Hawk that I managed to get a couple of photos of as
it passed low towards the lake shore. We also had a good count of N.
Harriers (32) including several males ("grey ghosts").
Non-raptor Observations:
There were lots of passerines on the move as well today with very large
flocks of Blackbirds (Grackles, Red-winged and a few Rusty), several flocks
of Cedar Waxwings, a large flock of Am Pipits on the field towards the lake
and many Eastern Bluebirds passing overhead. A nice find was a Dickcissel
that vocalized a few times as it flew past towards the lake side and a bit
over tree height (thanks Brett F for picking out its flight call as it
approached!). Have a look at the following eBird checklist for the day (thx
Chris B for putting it together):
https://ebird.org/checklist/S200393036
There are lots of other eBird checklists for the day from other visitors as
well. You can find these under <Explore><Hot Spots> and put in Hawk Cliff.
Predictions:
West winds will mean a much smaller flight Sunday though the weather will
be fair with pressure on the rise and a bit of thermals building into the
afternoon.
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Report submitted by Dave Brown (ez.raptor1...@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
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