Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 14, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 8 17 19 Bald Eagle 15 19 22 Northern Harrier 35 55 58 Sharp-shinned Hawk 264 343 345 Cooper's Hawk 10 13 15 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 6097 6151 6155 Red-tailed Hawk 4 5 5 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 79 188 191 Merlin 10 18 18 Peregrine Falcon 1 3 3 Unknown Accipitrine 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 6523 6812 6831 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:30:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 7.5 hours Official Counter: Harold V. Observers: Chris Burris, Dave Brown, Tom Bolohan, Tom Stewart Visitors: Lots of visitors today asking tons of great questions including several younger birders who got to see some BW kettles! It's always fun to get the scope set up on a kettle of BWs and watch a first time visitor as they look through the scope and then the look of incredulity as they exclaim "holy #$%@ that's a lot of hawks!". :) Thanks to Harold V for keeping the count today... and to all the other spotters Chris B, Tom B, Tom S, Dave B, Elizabeth S (and likely a few more I'm forgetting). Weather: A very good day for the hawks to move with a general northerly flow of light winds across all of southern Ontario and good thermals developing by mid-morning. The cumulus clouds took a bit too long to develop so initially we were staring into pure blue skies to try and find raptors migrating overhead. Eventually, the clouds started to build in to our N and moved down to almost on top of us. Temps were quite warm for this point in September starting at 16C and getting to a high of 24C. Raptor Observations: A pretty good flight today with a total of 6523 raptors tallied. The Broadwings were really on the move and we had a couple of large kettles of 600-700 birds with several more kettles consisting of at least 100 birds. Total BWs today was 6097 along with Sharpies (264), A, Kestrels (79), a nice push of Northern Harriers (35), a few Osprey (8) and several very high flying immature Bald Eagles that we counted (15). Other species included Cooper's Hawks (10), Merlins (10), a few Red-tailed Hawks (4) also crossing very high with the BWs and to round it out a lone Peregrine right along the cliff edge. Non-raptor Observations: Amazing passerine action to start the morning with a near constant motion of birds in the trees and shrubs surrounding the viewing platform. Lots of warbler species, vireos and woodpeckers. Monarch Count: 325 ======================================================================== 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 To find out more about OFO, please visit our website at ofo.ca or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists.
