Saturday 17 October 2015

Hawk Cliff - Golden Eagle and Cattle Egret!

Today I spent the morning and part of the afternoon with the KW Nature Club at Hawk Cliff near Port Stanley with the hopes of seeing a big push of migrant raptors.  I was not disappointed!

Check out this ebird checklist:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25450913

Highlights included large numbers of Turkey Vultures (3,460), Red-shouldered Hawks (21), Bald Eagles (15) and the bird that many of us were hoping to see...a Golden Eagle!  No matter how many times I see this bird, it always thrills me!  This was a young bird that gave great views to those present.  Unfortunately this bird (like many of the hawks) was quite backlit, giving mostly a silhouette in the photos.

Golden Eagle
Golden Eagle
Red-shouldered Hawk 

After Hawk Cliff we made our way along the lake shore towards Port Rowan where we had heard news of a Cattle Egret!  We saw it almost immediately foraging for bugs stirred up by the cows which it followed around continuously!  Ken said that this is the 3rd Cattle Egret they have seen in this same field, apparently it is a favourite spot!
Cattle Egret
Earlier in the day we also saw this nice Snow Goose!
Snow Goose
A really great day, I added 2 year birds to my list (Golden Eagle and Cattle Egret) bringing my yearly total to 255 species for Ontario.

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