St. Thomas Field Naturalist Club

Category: Hawkwatch

  • Hawk Cliff Woods Migration Weekend

    Saturday and Sunday, Sept 27 & 28, 2025 10 a.m to 3:30 p.m. above photo by Rob Paterson

    Note: new location at Hawk Cliff Woods north meadow entrance at 43277 Dexter Line, Union, ON.

    Celebrate the spectacular fall migration of hawks and other raptors and Monarch butterflies at this free outdoor event hosted in partnership with St. Thomas Field Naturalist Club, Hawk Cliff Raptor Banders, and volunteers of Monarch Watch. Learn about migrating raptors and Monarch butterflies, their lives, and conservation challenges and opportunities!

    Sunday and Saturday Program

    10:00 AM: Hawk Talk by the Hawk Cliff Raptor Banders
    Be awed and inspired by the hawk and raptor conservation work of the Hawk Cliff Raptor Banders! Learn about some of our local hawks and raptors, their migrations, and the banding work completed by volunteer banders. Live wild birds are responsibly handled under permit during this presentation, pending weather and wind conditions.

    11:30 AM: Raptor Presentation by the Canadian Raptor Conservancy
    Get ready to be educated and entertained with the Canadian Raptor Conservancy! Learn about the natural history, size, prey species, range, and relationship to humans of a variety of birds of prey up close and personal. This demonstration showcases domestically produced, professionally trained birds in free-flight – you won’t want to miss it.

    1:00 PM: Monarch Presentation
    Learn about the amazing journey and life of the Monarch butterfly, and some of the great conservation work being done to protect our small but mighty friends. Live butterflies are responsibly handled under permit during this presentation, pending weather conditions.

    2:00 PM: Hawk Talk by the Hawk Cliff Raptor Banders
    Be awed and inspired by the hawk and raptor conservation work of the Hawk Cliff Raptor Banders! Learn about some of our local hawks and raptors, their migrations, and the banding work completed by volunteer banders. Live wild birds are responsibly handled under permit during this presentation, pending weather and wind conditions.

    Information supplied by Thames Talbot Land Trust

  • Hawk Cliff Woods Migration Weekend

    The event this year will be on October 1st and 2nd, one weekend only.
    9:30 am – Thames Talbot Land Trust hike
    11:00 am – Hawk Cliff Raptor Banders presentation
    1:00 pm – Monarch Watch presentation, showing tagging of butterflies and travels to Mexico
    2:00 pm – Hawk Cliff Raptor Banders presentation

    All events are run by volunteers.

  • Hawk Cliff 2015 HawkWatch Summary

    Red-tail Hawk --- photo by Mark Yurek
    Red-tailed Hawk — photo by Mark Yurek

    A few Hawk Cliff volunteers headed to the hawkwatch on August 21 to kick off the 2015 Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch season. Joined by many more in September, these volunteers eventually provided coverage until December 13, for a total of 117 count days, including 21 no-count days all of which were the result of inclement weather. In 2015, “inclement weather” usually meant rain, at times heavy, accompanied by strong southerly, (S, SW, SE) winds. Little snow was recorded during this hawk watch season, but observers did enjoy the unusually mild temperatures. Volunteers contributed a total of 518.25 hours, the highest number of hours’ coverage since the 2011 season. Again this year, our volunteers deserve a big thank-you for their dedication to the hawkwatch.

    We’ve looked at the Birds per Hour (BPH) again for this summary which gives a truer feel for whether bird numbers were up or down compared to previous multi-year averages. This keeps the counts from being skewed by the assumption that the longer you spend on watch the more birds you see. This season we proved that assumption to be false. Compared to previous years, the 518.25 total hours for 2015 was only slightly below the past ten years’ average (539.20) so in terms of an average number of hours per day, we spent 4.47 hours per day for 117 days. Despite all those hours of observation, the total count in 2015 was only 53,559, far below the 15-year average of 67,246. Thus the total BPH was 103 for the season, much less than the 15-year average of 201 (2000-2014 inclusive).

    The primary cause was the lack of a major Broadwing flight within range of observation from the hawkwatch. Our total for Broadwings was only 13,000 or only 10% of the highest count ever back in 2000 and well below the multi-year average of 33,400. Other species were also noticeably missing with our lowest ever count of Northern Goshawk (8) and nearly the lowest of Rough-legged (13). We did see our highest 1-day count ever though for Turkey Vultures (5,578) on Oct. 18, clearly a species that is not at risk in Ontario. All other species had lower BPH for 2015, many less than half the multi-year average. Let’s hope for bigger, better flights in 2016!

  • Hawkwatch at Long Point this weekend

    Long Point Eco-adventures

    There is a eco-fest and hawkwatch plus meet and mingle with snakes and turtles at Long Point Eco-adventures this weekend.
    Here is the poster for event.