Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch
Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 23, 2015
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 829 22225 22736
Osprey 0 5 122
Bald Eagle 6 73 131
Northern Harrier 12 465 909
Sharp-shinned Hawk 32 3751 8186
Cooper's Hawk 4 120 184
Northern Goshawk 2 6 6
Red-shouldered Hawk 29 221 223
Broad-winged Hawk 0 59 12999
Red-tailed Hawk 129 1128 1189
Rough-legged Hawk 1 2 2
Golden Eagle 10 17 17
American Kestrel 0 327 1932
Merlin 0 28 83
Peregrine Falcon 0 32 76
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: 1054 28459 48795
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 13:00:00
Total observation time: 5 hours
Official Counter: Mary Carnahan
Observers: Cary Graham, Don Taylor, Jim Dunn, Keith Sealy,
Mac McAlpine
Visitors:
No Visitors.
Weather:
With that ENE wind right in our faces, it was chilly to start. Temp was 3
C., but felt cooler; however, there was absolutely no cloud cover, so the
day warmed quickly reaching 11 C. by the end of the 12:00 hour, with some
distant cloud beginning to build towards the south.
Raptor Observations:
What a day! 10 Golden Eagles!!! 4 of those were adults. Todays sunshine
highlighted every aspect, providing some great photo ops. and memorable
views.
In all, we tallied 1054 migrants today of which 829 were Turkey Vultures,
leaving 225 migratory raptors, including 9 raptor species. On top of the
10 Goldens, 6 Bald Eagles were tallied. The remaining 7 species were
Northern Harrier (12), Sharp-shinned Hawk (32), Coopers Hawk (4) and
nicely rounding out the Accipiters were 2 Northern Goshawks. In addition
there were 3 Buteo species -- 29 Red-shouldered Hawks, 129 Red-tailed
Hawks, and 1 Rough-legged Hawk.
Non-raptor Observations:
A lot of non-raptors migrated today along with the big birds including
large flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds as well as a mix of Cowbirds,
Grackles and Rusty Blackbirds. There were also smaller flocks of Am.
Robin, Am Goldfinch, Eastern Bluebird, Am. Pipit, European Starling, and
Pine Siskin. As well, 1 Common Raven was spotted near Roberts Line. In
addition, there were 2 Killdeer and 2 Tundra Swans at the B&B, plus 2 Snow
Geese at the Cliff. Around the observation knoll were Song and
White-throated Sparrows, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch,
Cedar Waxwings (many!), Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets and an
Eastern Phoebe.
Best sighting of the day was Macs. Early this morning, he saw a young
(2-point) White-tailed Deer.
Once again, observers reported seeing a few butterflies today, including 1
Monarch (!), Cabbage White, Clouded & Orange Sulphur.
Predictions:
The wind shifted to SE during the last hour of the watch and cloud started
to buildto the south; the cloud will increase through tonight with a 40%
chance of showers overnight, becoming a 90% chance of (steady) rain late
Saturday morning into the afternoon and possibly early evening as well.
Winds will be Southerly. We are expecting a soggy high of 11 C. on Saturday
dipping to 6 overnight into Sunday with a strong NW flow for Sunday with a
high of only 10, feeling cooler, with a nice mix of sun and cloud -- great
for viewing those raptors. If Sunday's forecast holds, it could be a great
day for viewing migratory raptors on Sunday, but the wind will shift to NE
for Monday, so the birds will be very high and what's worse, Monday is
expected to be a very clear day -- it's hard enough to see those birds when
they are high, but against a clear, blue sky, it is quite a challenge.
Still it sounds like a beautiful fall day and the change in the weather
could brings some interesting non-raptor migrants as well.
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Report submitted by Dave Brown ([email protected])
Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch information may be found at:
http://www.ezlink.on.ca/~thebrowns/HawkCliff/index.htm
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