Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 16, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 385 1176 3425 Osprey 0 6 57 Bald Eagle 14 80 259 Northern Harrier 19 93 459 Sharp-shinned Hawk 267 935 2161 Cooper's Hawk 22 52 85 Northern Goshawk 0 10 10 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 2 4 Broad-winged Hawk 0 2 23649 Red-tailed Hawk 12 15 84 Rough-legged Hawk 0 1 1 Golden Eagle 1 2 2 American Kestrel 101 250 972 Merlin 11 29 67 Peregrine Falcon 2 50 102 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 2 3 Total: 836 2705 31340 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Chris Burris Observers: Dave Brown Visitors: A big thanks to Chris B for doing the count today and to the many folks who were visiting today and helped spot the birds. Weather: The temp ranged from 11C to 15C. The wind was moderately NW (about 20-25 km/h, with occasional gusts), eventually shifting to W. Cloud coverage began at 100% with light rain then eventually gave way to 40% multilevel coverage. The rain was falling right from the start till about 10 EST. Raptor Observations: Pretty good variety and a 836 bird total, including healthy numbers of Sharp-shins(267) and Kestrels(101), a pair of adult Peregrines and a couple of Red-shoulders, and a single Golden Eagle that passed to our north and very low along the treetops. I was lucky enough to get it in my scope and watched as it circled once before continuing westward. It exhibited obvious white patches in each wing and a white band across the tail which could be any age from juvenile to immature/subadult (the only thing I can say with certainty is it wasn't an adult looking bird). Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptors today included: Wood Duck, Canada Goose, Herring Gull, Bonaparte’s Gull, American Crow, Blue Jay, American Goldfinch, European Starling, Red-winged Blackbird, Mourning Dove, Hermit Thrush, Gray Catbird, Eastern Bluebird, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, Eastern Phoebe, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Dark-eyed Junco, Rock Pigeon, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Palm Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Eastern Meadowlark. For those interested in Monarchs my count was just 10 for the day. :) Predictions: Sunday will start with moderate W winds BUT they're supposed to start backing to NW by midday and with more sunshine to start the day tomorrow it may bring a decent flight through. Monday is looking even better with moderate NW winds for the entire day and lots of sunshine so we should see a good flight on Monday as well. This assumes of course that Mother Nature cooperates with the weather forecasters. ======================================================================== 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: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=392