Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 16, 2019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 114 114 10722 Osprey 0 0 79 Bald Eagle 12 12 141 Northern Harrier 21 21 343 Sharp-shinned Hawk 11 11 2841 Cooper's Hawk 13 13 124 Northern Goshawk 2 2 3 Red-shouldered Hawk 50 50 185 Broad-winged Hawk 1 1 5153 Red-tailed Hawk 857 857 1456 Rough-legged Hawk 1 1 1 Golden Eagle 13 13 19 American Kestrel 1 1 1777 Merlin 0 0 73 Peregrine Falcon 0 0 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: 1096 1096 22993 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 7.5 hours Official Counter: Tom Bolohan Observers: Dave Brown, Mike Kirchin Visitors: Thanks to Tom B, and Mike Sr and Mike Jr for their help today and also at the end of the day a visit from Darryl D and his friend Alanna. Weather: In a word.... COLD! Still it was a fantastic hawk watching day with strong winds from the NE and then swinging slightly to ENE before rounding back again to NE. We had lots of sunshine all day with a bit of cloud but mostly contrails to provide a backdrop making it easier to spot the birds. The majority of the flight today was almost certainly under 200 ft with just a few birds gaining lift and getting to perhaps 500 ft. Raptor Observations: Great migration push today with a total of 1,096 raptors tallied. Today's big highlights were the 13 Golden Eagles.... with the most interesting sighting that of 3 young Goldens all flying together not too high above the ravine tree line... and at one point with 2 of them locking talons and rotating around each other! Awesome! The bulk of today's flight was Redtails (857) with an almost continuous movement of this species for the first few hours. Other species put in a good showing too with Red-shoulders (50 - almost all adult birds) and a number of N. Harriers (21). Some accipiters were on the move as well with a few Sharpies (11), a decent number of Cooper's (13) and a couple of N. Goshawks (both young birds and on the deck!). The only falcon of the day was a single adult male Am. Kestrel. Non-raptor Observations: Lots of non-raptor species were on the move today as well with Am. Pipits, Am. Robins, continuous flights of Am. Crows, DE Juncos, Blue Jays, Rusty Blackbirds, several flocks of Starlings and RW Blackbirds, Canada Geese and a nice surprise.... a number of good sized flocks of Sandhill Cranes (433 total - all very low) headed westward right over the hawk watch area! ======================================================================== Report submitted by Dave Brown (thebrowns@ezlink.ca) Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch information may be found at: http://www.ezlink.ca/~thebrowns/HawkCliff/index.htm More site information at hawkcount.org: http://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=392