Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 09, 2023 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 12 12 12 Bald Eagle 3 3 3 Northern Harrier 9 9 9 Sharp-shinned Hawk 243 247 247 Cooper's Hawk 0 0 0 American Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 13 13 13 Red-tailed Hawk 3 3 3 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 0 0 American Kestrel 26 43 43 Merlin 2 3 3 Peregrine Falcon 1 1 1 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: 312 334 334 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 6 hours Official Counter: Dave Brown Observers: Cary Graham, Chris Burris, Ronnie Goodhand, Tom Bolohan Visitors: Quite a few visitors today with a few that stayed to help spot the birds and many others that were just down to see what the hawk watch was about. A big thanks to everyone that helped with today's count. Weather: Heavy overcast to start and humid. Light NE winds. Temp 14C getting to a high of 22C. Winds eventually went variable and the flight ended. Raptor Observations: A better flight than expected today with a total of 312 birds. The bulk of this count was Sharpies (243) along with Am Kestrels (26), a small number of N Harriers (9) and our first Broadwings (13). We also had our first Peregrine of the season that cruised past right over our heads and a couple of Merlins. The most interesting thing today was a kettle consisting of 30+ Sharpies (and only SSHAs) which is something over all the years I've been doing this hawk watch I (and others there) never remembered seeing! Non-raptor Observations: Lots of non-raptors were around today with Olive-Sided Flycatcher, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Red-eyed Vireo, GC Kinglet, Eastern Towhee, Carolina and House Wrens, Blue Jays, Cedar Waxwings, Am Robins and other thrush sp., Swallow sp., Common Raven, Am Crows, Am Goldfinch, Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, BC Chickadees, European Starlings, Gray Catbirds, N Cardinals, RB Grosbeak and some warblers... Magnolia, Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, Cape May, Am Redstarts, Wilsons, Chestnut-sided and Black-and-White. And for those that like to see a count of Monarch Butterflies... numbers picked up as the day progressed with somewhere between 200 and 250 flying through. Predictions: Sunday looks like it will start with more sunshine and light NE winds for most of the day. I'd expect a flight similar to or maybe a bit better than we had today. It's still pretty early in the season and the weather continues to be way too warm to get the migrants moving. And looking further ahead light variable winds on Monday and rain on Tuesday likely won't mean much of a flight those 2 days. ======================================================================== 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