Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 15, 2026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 2 4 Turkey Vulture 1034 5216 5887 Osprey 0 2 47 Bald Eagle 7 38 181 Northern Harrier 13 177 571 Sharp-shinned Hawk 38 651 3218 Cooper's Hawk 9 53 144 American Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 3 14 16 Broad-winged Hawk 3 7 18495 Red-tailed Hawk 75 123 302 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 2 2 American Kestrel 4 352 2021 Merlin 1 29 82 Peregrine Falcon 0 107 133 Unknown Accipitrine 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 0 1 Total: 1187 6773 31105 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours Official Counter: Dave Brown Observers: Cary Graham, Su Ross-Redmond Visitors: Only a couple of visitors to the site today including Bruce W from Sudbury who helped us a lot with spotting the birds. Thanks to Su, Cary and Don for help with today's count. Weather: We had heavy overcast to start the day and it was quite cool with the moderate NE to ENE to E winds hitting us right in the face. By the end of the count period the sky had begun to clear out quite a bit and the sun felt great and was providing some heat shimmer off the ground. The temp only got to a high of 13C today. Eventually the wind backed to SSE and the flight was done. Raptor Observations: Today's flight was very difficult with no defined flight line or height and in very poor lighting conditions... it meant constantly scanning the sky with our binoculars over and over to see what might be sneaking past. We had N Harriers (13) on the deck and then we'd look up and see one flying with the TVs (1,034) in the stratosphere! The only unexpected birds today were a couple of late young BWs... otherwise we got some movement by Redtails (75) and Red-shouldered Hawks (3). The only eagles today were a few immature BAEA (7) that I actually counted... the rest (adults and a couple of juveniles) appeared to be just transiting back and forth along the lakeshore. Very few falcons at all today with Am Kestrels (4) and a single Merlin. Non-raptor Observations: There were lots of passerines on the move today with large flocks of blackbirds, Blue Jays, Am Goldfinch, a couple of Eastern Bluebirds and I'm pretty sure I had both Purple Finch and Pine Siskins fly over. Predictions: Friday is looking messy weatherwise with a good possibility of rain in the morning and a forecast for strong SW to W winds with extreme gusts up to nearly 70 kph. I suspect virtually all raptors will be grounded for the day. However, keep an eye out for Saturday... the forecast is for moderate N to NW winds for the day with lots of sunshine... and the updraft velocities and buoyancy predictions are also looking quite good... and there's a 50/50 chance of cumulous clouds as well... all positive for at least a decent raptor flight. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Dave Brown (ez.raptor1210@gmail.com) 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