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.
Send bird reports to birdalert@ontbirds.ca
For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit
http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup
Posting guidelines can be found at
http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide
