Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 27, 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 366 368 Osprey 2 20 24 Bald Eagle 4 45 66 Northern Harrier 3 114 116 Sharp-shinned Hawk 5 1673 1674 Cooper's Hawk 1 26 26 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 1 1 Broad-winged Hawk 0 6184 6187 Red-tailed Hawk 0 4 4 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 8 503 519 Merlin 3 29 29 Peregrine Falcon 18 22 22 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: 44 8987 9036 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:30:00 Observation end time: 13:30:00 Total observation time: 7 hours Official Counter: Dave Brown Observers: Chris Burris, Matt Oswald, Tom Bolohan Visitors: Thanks to Chris, Matt and Tom B. for helping with today's count. Weather: SW winds again today but quite a bit stronger than yesterday with clouds of sand blowing up over the cliff edge. We had 100% cloud cover for most of the day and it did get a bit hazy towards midday. Temp was actually quite cool with the heavier winds and lack of sunshine starting initially at 18C (it felt much cooler) and getting to a high of 23C as the sun broke out in the last half hour of the count period. Raptor Observations: Well we hoped for Peregrines and they didn't disappoint! A total of 18 of these speedsters cruised through and all of them were right at the cliff edge... with a few even dropping below the cliff only to come rocketing back up into the heavy winds! A nice mix of adults and young birds and some obvious size differences with some likely smaller males and two or three much larger that were almost certainly females. Peregrine times (EST) 7:45(HY) 8:10(HY) 9:10(Ad) 9:15(Ad) 9:20(U) 9:27(Ad) 10:10(HY) 10:15(Ad) 10:20(HY) 10:35(HY) 10:45(Ad) 11:19(Ad) 11:30(Ad) 11:45(HY) 12:02(Ad) 12:05(Ad) 12:35(Ad) 1:30(Ad) Not much else was on the move today but one other highlight was an adult male N. Harrier that passed low just to our north. It should be noted that we had a number of Bald Eagles today continuously flying westward and then back eastward. Most we considered to be local birds so in the final tally I've included only 4 of these birds that were immatures or sub-adult looking. Non-raptor Observations: Some passerines were noted today though with such strong winds there weren't many fighting their way along the shoreline. Turkey Vultures, N. Cardinal (family group), WB Nuthatch, Gray Catbird, YB Sapsucker, White-throated Sparrow, N. flicker, E. Starlings, Bonaparte's, Ring-billed and Herring Gulls (lots flying the shoreline riding the heavy SW winds too), Canada Geese, a small flock of Plover sp., and many 100's of Blue Jays. ======================================================================== 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