Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 27, 2021 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 1 1 Turkey Vulture 2153 19699 21948 Osprey 1 13 64 Bald Eagle 13 224 403 Northern Harrier 30 290 656 Sharp-shinned Hawk 126 2096 3322 Cooper's Hawk 14 174 207 Northern Goshawk 0 13 13 Red-shouldered Hawk 300 787 789 Broad-winged Hawk 1 10 23657 Red-tailed Hawk 1160 2703 2772 Rough-legged Hawk 0 3 3 Golden Eagle 7 46 46 American Kestrel 2 480 1202 Merlin 5 50 88 Peregrine Falcon 0 60 112 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 2 14 14 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 0 0 Swainson's Hawk 0 2 3 Total: 3814 26665 55300 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours Official Counter: Dave Brown Observers: Dana Latour, Mac McAlpine, Matt Oswald, Ronnie Goodhand, Tim Arthur, Tom Bolohan, Tony Latour Visitors: Thanks to everyone who helped with today's count including Tom B, Dave B, Matt O, Mac M, Dana and Tony L, Tim A, Ronnie G, Ken and several others. Weather: We weren't too pleased with the weather forecasters today given we arrived at the hawk watch expecting a nice mix of sun and clouds and got a solid and low cloud deck for the first 4 hours. It finally started to lighten up in hour 5 and then break up somewhat in hour 6 which is when we finally had a good push of birds. Temps were warmer today and got to a high of 15C. The humidity took a long time to dorp as well which i think hindered today's flight and the winds were almost non-existent throughout the day though they did stay pretty much out of the N and NE till right at the end of the count when they swung to the W. Raptor Observations: Well after ANOTHER very slow start to raptor migration things started to get rolling in hour 5 and by the end of the count we had tallied 3814 birds. The bulk of the count was as expected TVs (2153) but there was a very good push of Redtails (1160) which is one of our best daily counts for this species in a long time. Also on the move were Red-shouldered Hawks (300) which is another of our best counts for them in quite a while. Other highlights were another 7 Golden Eagles most of which were juvenile / immature looking birds with a few adult looking birds passing through. We had late singles of Osprey and Broad-winged Hawk and very few falcons again today. Non-raptor Observations: A bit surprised to see a couple of Monarchs today along with lots of non-raptors with many flocks flying past overhead. Species included Blue Jays (though much fewer than over the past couple of weeks), Carolina and Winter Wrens, American Robins, Eastern Bludbirds and Hermit Thrushes, Red-winged and Rusty Blackbirds, Common Grackles, Eastern Phoebe, Blue-headed Vireo, N. Flickers, Downy, Hairy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch, Pine Siskins, Horned Larks, Lapland Longspurs, Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches, Mallards, Canada Geese, Snow Geese (a small flock of 7 with 3 white and 4 blue morph birds headed to the WNW) Black-capped Chickadees, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creeper, Yellow-rumped, Tennessee and Common Yellowthroat warblers, Common Loons, DC Cormorant, N. Cardinals, White-throated, Song and Chipping Sparrows and finally quite a few American Crows on the move today. Predictions: Solid E winds for the day tomorrow with a mix of sun and clouds would be OK for a decent flight. ======================================================================== 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