Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 08, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 15 15 16 Bald Eagle 30 30 30 Northern Harrier 43 43 46 Sharp-shinned Hawk 115 115 117 Cooper's Hawk 9 9 9 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 510 510 512 Red-tailed Hawk 13 13 13 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 1 1 1 American Kestrel 194 194 195 Merlin 9 9 9 Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0 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: 939 939 948 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 06:30:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8.5 hours Official Counter: Dave Brown Observers: Chris Burris, Derek Lyon, Ernie Gribble, Jennifer Lyon, Su Ross-Redmond, Tom Bolohan Visitors: Thanks to all those that were out to help with the watch today... Su, Jen and Derek, Ernie, Chris, Jim and Tom. There were also several visitors to the site today from London and beyond. For anyone heading to the hawk watch site... despite the no access warning signs at the observation knoll, all hawk watchers ARE ALLOWED to access the knoll and the edge of the field as per permission from the farmer who owns the property but do NOT wander onto his property. All count forms are held at the site in a container tucked at the north end of the knoll and covered in a green garbage bag for those intending to do the count for the day... and any counts should be reported to me for submission to HMANA. Weather: A good day for hawk watching with very strong NE and NNE winds. Completely clouded over but the cloud deck was still fairly high and provided a good backdrop against which to spot the birds. Humidity was lower and temps much cooler which likely got the birds moving. Raptor Observations: One of the better early September days that I can remember with a total of 939 birds.... the bulk were Broadwings (510) along with good numbers of Osprey (15), N. Harriers (43), Sharpies (115) and Kestrels (194). The big surprise today was a Golden Eagle that was very low as it passed through right overhead. The bird had a faded off-white band across the tail deck and dull golden feathering on the nape of the neck but was otherwise completely dark and had a smaller head than a Bald. This is one of a very few Golden Eagles that have ever been recorded in the month of September at Hawk Cliff. The Bald Eagles were really on the move today with a total of 30 counted with lots of immatures and/or sub-adults. We didn't count any definitive looking adults or what appeared to be HY birds that may have been local and that were spotted flying back and forth and not really migrating. Other species included Cooper's Hawks (9) and Merlin (9) and even a few Redtails (13) that seemed to actually be migrating. Non-raptor Observations: Quite a few passerines noted for the day ... warblers: Blackpoll, BT Green and BT Blue, Cape May, Black and White, Northern Parula, Magnolia, Am. Redstart and Palm, Woodpeckers: Hairy, Downy, Red-bellied and N. Flicker, a few RT Hummingbirds, Red-eyed Vireo, Purple Martins, Barn Swallows, Cedar Waxwings, Common Loon, Belted Kingfisher, Lesser Yellowlegs, Great Blue Heron, N. Cardinal, Purple Finch, Swainson's Thrush, Song Sparrow, Gray Catbird, Blue Jay and Indigo Bunting. For those interested in Monarchs there was a large roost of them at the hawk watch site when I arrived with an estimated 1000-1500 total. This is the largest number of Monarchs I've seen at this site in years. ======================================================================== 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