Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 29, 2011 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 242 37578 37736 Osprey 0 46 189 Bald Eagle 1 89 188 Northern Harrier 3 614 1100 Sharp-shinned Hawk 15 7807 13056 Cooper's Hawk 2 350 399 Northern Goshawk 2 19 19 Red-shouldered Hawk 26 623 623 Broad-winged Hawk 0 764 73020 Red-tailed Hawk 174 1799 1823 Rough-legged Hawk 1 8 8 Golden Eagle 3 137 137 American Kestrel 0 2364 5086 Merlin 0 90 148 Peregrine Falcon 0 15 38 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 0 1 Total: 469 52303 133571 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 14:30:00 Total observation time: 6.5 hours Official Counter: Colin Horstead Observers: Clive Hodder, Derek Lyon, Jennifer Lyon, Jim Dunn Visitors: A couple of visitors today...Gwen and Dennis Lewington (Hamilton)...our thanks to them for helping spots the birds today...and thanks to our counters Colin, Jim, Clive, Jen and Derek and Tim. Weather: Lots of cloud.... very low ceiling...for the whole day. Winds were light from the SE for most of the day with a bit of ESE. Temp ranged from 7C to 10C. Visibility was good ....even though there was rain mid-morning..and then drizzle for the latter part of the count period. Raptor Observations: Not a bad flight today...total was 469 birds. Interestingly, the counters had almost given up after a dismal start (in fact Clive headed home) and then they spotted a couple of Sharpies and some TVs in the air and decided to hang in for a few more minutes...and little by little more birds appeared and began to move westward. The species observed today included TVs (242), Redtails (174) with some nice kettles of 20-30 birds at a time... a lone Bald Eagle, Red-shoulders (26), Harriers (3), Sharpies (15), Cooper's (2), a couple of nice N. Goshawks (1 adult and 1 juvie), a single Roughleg again today (a dark morph bird) but not one falcon. Only 3 Golden Eagles today (one appeared to be an adult bird...the other 2 were too difficult at the distance they crossed)....quite a drop from yesterday! Non-raptor Observations: About 10 loon sp. on the move today...flying straight out to the lake...but very few passerines in the air at all. Predictions: Sunday may produce a slightly better flight if the predicted SW winds hold and the rain does not materialize. It needs to dry up a bit to get the birds moving...and there's a frost warning again tonight for the Elgin county region. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Dave Brown ([email protected]) Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch information may be found at: http://www.ezlink.on.ca/~thebrowns/HawkCliff/index.htm _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
