Young Birder Hawk Watch on Cypress Mountain
Some of the young birders at the hawk watch on Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver, BC
We went up to Cypress Mountain on Sunday Sept 21st, after a nail biter evening of trying to decide if we should cancel or not due to a forecast predicting heavy rain and cloud. We had 13 youth signed up but with the iffy weather 6 decided to stay home (some were sick and had homework and sports events as well). Luckily, we had 7 keeners that still wanted to go and we were all so glad we did go, because the weather turned out to be beautiful and we got some rare hawks.
When we started driving up the mountain; we were driving through thick pea soup fog but when we got to the top we had blue sky. An hour after starting the hawk watch, all the clouds and fog were gone at the picnic site. The picnic site at Cypress Mountain has proven to be the best site for watching hawks in the Lower Mainland. It seems consistently to get Broad-winged Hawks and the occasional Swainson’s in mid September. In 2023 I had 5 Broad-winged and 5 Swainson’s Hawks and over 45 Sharp-shinned Hawks, so it has certainly been productive for migrating raptors.
Our Hawk Watch Site and blue sky at the Cypress Pinic Area in West Van - Photo: Raymond Liu
Rob Lyske and Neill Vanhinsberg were helping to explain to the kids where the best spots to watch at the site were for the migrating hawks and the names we gave to the various landmarks for when we would call out the hawks.
While we waited for it to warm up for the birds to start moving, we had a perched Cooper’s Hawk and the youth enjoyed watching the Steller’s Jays and beautiful Band-tailed Pigeons. We also had Red-breasted Sapsuckers and Downy Woodpeckers perch beside a friendly Golden Retriever named “Riot.”
As the weather warmed, we had the first of 21 Sharp-shinned Hawks show up and I explained how to separate the similar looking Cooper’s Hawk in flight by their head projection and flight style, among other ID tips. The youth were delighted to have a Sharpie fly low over us.
Sharp-shinned Hawk flying low over us at the hawk watch at Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver - Photo: Bentley Colwill
We had one single Osprey of the day and no Northern Harriers, which was unusual. We also had 16 Turkey Vultures, which is always cool to see. We also had 2 Bald Eagles fly over us and 8 Red-tailed Hawks which was super cool. We also had one American Kestrel and a very vocal Hairy Woodpecker.
Red-tailed Hawk at Cypress Mtn - Photo: Bentley Colwill
The kids all brought lunches and enjoyed watching dragonflies and Anica was busy shooting beautiful shots of macro shots of bumblebees and Common Drone Flys; while we told stories and tried to kill time between the stretches of no hawks passing over. Drone Flys are bee mimics, which the youth found to be extremely fascinating.
A Common Drone Fly, which entertained the youth during the lulls in raptor movement - Photo: Luis Huxley
We had hoped to see another rare Spot-winged Glider dragonfly like I had seen 2 days prior but we had to settle for Blue-winged Darner today. The youth were also entertained by the Common Ravens that were diving, flying and vocalizing and just having a lot of fun in the air.
Leo spotted a Northern Alligator Lizard which he got Destiny on! It was a lifer reptile for Leo and he was pretty excited!
Raymond also entertained us as he told us all about the cool birds he saw during his week long stay at the young birder workshop at Beaverhill’s Bird Observatory in Alberta; where he even saw a rare and hard to see Yellow Rail!
Suddenly Neill called out an adult Broad-winged Hawk coming up behind us and flying right low in front us, giving the youth spectacular views! A few hours later Bentley called out a small hawk flying from left to right far away in front of us and we got on it with our scopes and sure enough it was another Broad-tailed which was thrilling!
Adult Broad-winged Hawk flying over us at Cypress Mtn - Photo: Melissa Hafting
Broad-winged Hawk spotted by Bentley - Photo: Bentley Colwill
For all the youth in attendance it was there first-ever hawk watch and for 5 of them, the rare Broad-winged Hawks they saw, were lifers! We had hoped to get extra lucky today and get a rare Swainson’s Hawk but alas it was not meant to be. It was no matter, as it was a great day out with lovely company and fabulous weather to boot!! Thanks to all the youth who came out!
Young Birders had a great day at the Hawk Watch with 2 rare Broad-winged Hawks!
