There was excellent coverage during the 2026 fall hawk watch, with eleven groups in the field. The event was held on Saturday 5 September, during the long weekend, which will be avoided next year. Most parties had to deal with fog and rain early in the day, but in the afternoon it cleared up. Overall raptor variety was good, although most species’ tallies were much below average (Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk). Passerine numbers were quite low, with especially flycatchers, thrushes, sparrows and warblers in short supply. In addition, most groups mentioned that overall species numbers were also down. A few parties noted the high number of Monarch Butterflies they saw – it certainly seems to have been a productive year for them.
Thank you to all who participated.
Group 1. Katharine and John Schulz.
Katharine and John did their traditional route west to the Portage la Prairie area. Among their highlights were a Great Egret and eight Great Blue Herons at the Portage Spillway, six Red-headed Woodpeckers and nine Eastern Bluebirds.
Group 2. Ward Christianson and Marlene Waldron
Ward and Marlene visited West Shoal Lake, St. Ambroise and the Warren area. They found a Lesser Black-backed Gull at the PR. 227 dump – no doubt the same bird that has been reported there regularly in the past few weeks. They also noted three Great Egrets and nine Eastern Bluebirds.
Group 3. Cathy Swiderek, James Whitelaw and Eda Korchyski.
This party drove via Birds Hill P.P. to the southeast side of Lake Winnipeg. Their species tally included Red Crossbill, which was a nice bonus.
Group 4. Peter Taylor and Rudolf Koes
Peter and Rudolf started at Wally Chryplywy Park at Beausejour and worked their way east to Lac du Bonnet and then via the Winnipeg River to Pine Falls and back to Beausejour. A Winter Wren was their best bird. They also saw three Black Bears, one of which decided to swim across the Lac du Bonnet sewage lagoon.
Group 5. Andy Courcelles and Gene Walz
Andy and Gene first visited Oak Hammock Marsh and then made their way to Hecla Island. They had a quiet day, but did see seven Trumpeter Swans at the Hecla Island causeway.
Group 6. Joel Kayer
Joel Kayer checked the Carrot Valley near The Pas. He did not have much luck with raptors. His 11 American Kestrels were surpassed a day later, when he saw at least 50! Timing is everything. He did note lots of Barn Swallows, including one flock of 148.
Group 7. Jo Swartz, Robert Parsons and Betsy Thorsteinson
This group battled the weather in the morning, which forced them to change their normal route, so they drove west from Carman to Stephenfield P.P., Roseisle and Baker Community before returning home. They tallied easily over 3000 Brewer’s Blackbirds and were happily surprised to see about half a dozen tardy Cliff Swallows at Ste Rose du Lac.
Group 8. Al Schritt, Luc Blanchette and Marvin Koop
This group parked themselves at Holo Crossing – the traditional hawk watch location in the Pembina Valley – where they had a quiet day.
Group 9. Gwen Armbruster, Charlie MacPherson, Cathy Copp, Norbert Schuster, Heidi Streu and Judy Wilson watched at Dunnotar.
Like group 8, their day was quiet, but they did see five Turkey Vultures. Their best bird was an Olive-sided Flycatcher.
Group 10. Cam Tramley, Olivier la Roche, Thomas Gauthier and Kris Row.
This party was new to the count. Although also hampered by the weather, they ended up having a good day. Their area was southeast of Winnipeg, including Ostenfeld, Steinbach, Marchand and Niverville. They had both a good number and variety of raptors. Their best bird was a “Krider’s” Red-tailed Hawk and they enjoyed seeing Sandhill Cranes.
Group 11. Garry Budyk and John Weier
Gary and John made an early start and drove to Baker Community where they got soaked waiting for a Clark’s Nutcracker to show up – eventually they had success. Then they visited their traditional Delta – Lynch’s Point area, where they picked up a Clark’s Grebe, Eastern Wood-Pewee and nine Cliff Swallows. Their total number of species was also below average.
Report by Rudolf Koes.