Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 01, 2014 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 196 196 27285 Osprey 1 1 119 Bald Eagle 2 2 108 Northern Harrier 23 23 683 Sharp-shinned Hawk 93 93 9059 Cooper's Hawk 19 19 293 Northern Goshawk 1 1 13 Red-shouldered Hawk 24 24 419 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 70719 Red-tailed Hawk 320 320 2403 Rough-legged Hawk 5 5 10 Golden Eagle 32 32 97 American Kestrel 4 4 2457 Merlin 2 2 81 Peregrine Falcon 0 0 163 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: 722 722 113910 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Dave Brown, Jim Dunn Observers: Bob Johnstone, Dave Brown, Gavin Platt, Ian Platt, Jason McGuire, Keith Sealy, Mary Carnahan, Phil Waggett Visitors: Lots of visitors today including a group of 20 or so on the OFO trip . Thanks to everyone who helped with spotting the birds today and getting the count done in the cold. :) Weather: In a word COLD!! Very strong NNE, NE and N winds for the entire day and after a fairly clear sky to start but it quickly clouded over to near solid with very few sunny breaks. Temp "supposedly" got to a high of 5C BUT with the wind chill it felt like around -7C. Raptor Observations: For all of us that braved the cold today the reward was an excellent flight and with the heavy cloud deck and strong winds blowing everything down to the lake shore we got some great looks at the birds "on the deck". This included a number of the Golden Eagles with several that were right at treetop height and we ended up with 32 for the day! Other highlights included several Roughlegs (5) with one dark morph and a single N. Goshawk. The total birds for the day was 722 and we had 14 of our typical 15 species missing out only on Peregrine. The lone Osprey early in the day was a surprise as were the Kestrels (4) which are getting late as migrants. There were a couple of Merlins also spotted early and a few Bald Eagles (3) tallied as they headed westward. The more typical migrants for this point of the season were present in force with a fairly steady flow of Redtails (320) both juveniles and adults and a good number of adult Sharpies (93) and Cooper's Hawks (19) with very few youngsters sprinkled in. There were fewer Red-shoulders (24) than we had expected but many of them were adult birds and nice and low for viewing. There were also many N. Harriers (23) on the move most of which were adult looking males along with a few youngsters. The bulk of the TVs seem to have already moved on as today's count was only 196. Non-raptor Observations: First, a quick note from Thursday (30th) on an interesting sighting I forgot to include. Tom B and Keith had a Cattle Egret that came at them from the east and crossed the road only to land right behind them on the support wire on a hydro pole where it was easily observed. IT flew off and continued westward. And now to today's non-raptor observations...even with today's howling winds and cool temperature, there was lots of songbird activity up and down the road and just inside the lane across from Sharpie Alley. Both species of Kinglet were seen along with BC Chickadees, Am. Goldfinch, Am. Robin (many), N. Cardinal, . In other spots along the road Son and White-throated Sparrows, Mourning Dove, Rusty Blackbird. DE Junco and 3 species of Woodpecker were found including Red-bellied, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. Flocks of Am. Pipts, Red-winged Blackbirds, Grackles, European Starlings, Eastern Buebirds were seen crossing the field. A flock of Cedar Waxwings flew across the field and landed in a couple of trees at the north end of the field and later, a flock of Purple Finches landed in the treeline near the observers. Throughout the day flocks of Crows crossed the field, sometimes with raptors and TVs mixed in; one Common Raven was spotted in the mix. Also throughout the day, several Common Loons were seen making their solo flight along the treeline headed for the lake. Alas, no butterflies or dragonflies were seen today; on the other hand, observers weren't "bugged" by mosquitoes, yellow jackets or midges either Predictions: With today's great flight I would suspect that the flight tomorrow will be good as well, Winds are forecast to be NNW right through to the mid-afternoon when it's supposed to veer slightly to the WNW and there's supposed to be lots of sunshine for the day. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Dave Brown (thebro...@ezlink.on.ca) 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. 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