Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 11, 2012 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 16 75 94 Bald Eagle 0 50 63 Northern Harrier 16 108 157 Sharp-shinned Hawk 5 633 640 Cooper's Hawk 0 14 15 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 7039 7213 Red-tailed Hawk 0 0 2 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 90 436 598 Merlin 0 16 17 Peregrine Falcon 1 4 5 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: 128 8375 8804 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Jim Dunn Observers: Carol Parafenko, Mary Carnahan Visitors: Thanks to today's visitors for their help spotting and IDing both raptor and non-raptor species...in the morning we were joined by Rheinhold Pokraka and Murray Larmour and later on by Bob Johnstone, Norm Holden and Gary Pembleton. Thanks also to Jim and Mary for the (as always) great reports...and Bruce Parker for the Monarch Butterfly information. Weather: Winds were moderate to strong from the SSW for the day....often bringing good flight of Osprey and Falcons along the cliff as they take advantage of the dynamic lift created by the wind pushing up the cliff face. Temp got to a high of 22 under mostly sunny skies as high pressure builds in over the region. Raptor Observations: The weekend was a hard act to follow. I guess the STRONG SSW WINDS pushed all the wind surfers (read here Broadwings!!) farther north and only the strong direct fliers courted the lake shore. After nearly 5600 Broadwings yesterday...today ZILCH...not a single Broadwing was observed! Total birds for the day was 128. The count included the typical species that use lift along the cliff...Osprey (16), N. Harrier (16), Kestrel (90) and a single Peregrine. The PG was a new bird (probably female) as it was much larger than the mini model (likely a male) that's been harassing everything along the lake for the past week. Local Eagles and TVâs were up early and the legion of Gulls was a bit annoying when trying to spot the actual raptor migrants. Non-raptor Observations: In the avian department, we had a paltry 7 species of Warbler today, although among those were numerous Magnolias and Redstarts and an adult male Wilson's in addition to Cape May, Black & white, Ovenbird and Common Yellowthroat. In the same area with the warblers were singles of Philadelphia and Warbling Vireo and several Red-eyed. As well a Ruby-crowned Kinglet was noted sharing a tire-rut bird bath with several warblers. Also seen today were Swainson's Thrush and a Veery, a lone Chimney Swift, 4 Common Loons, 2 Great Blue Herons, a Least Flycatcher, and 3 or 4 Tufted Titmice were scolding this observer along with a mob of Chickadees at the entrance to the woods. The bean field in front of the mound continues to provide cover for numerous Song Sparrows and Indigo Buntings. Although we didn't specifically count Monarchs from the mound (too busy counting AKs!) we did notice a good movement of Monarchs today and Bruce managed to tag and weigh 30 over a 3-hour period. As well, we noticed a few "mini" roosts in various locations this morning; for example, about a dozen Monarchs were roosting on a tree at the mound early this morning when Jim arrived (about 6:45 EST). Bruce also noted that many were seen nectaring today, as opposed to blasting through as they have been on some other days in the past week. Predictions: More moderate to strong SW winds predicted again tomorrow...so a similar flight to today is a good possibility. ======================================================================== 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
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