Mount Lorette and Beaver Mines, April 20

April 20 [Day 49] (Blake Weis, assisted by Rick Robb) 0710-1835. The temperature at 0710 was -1C and the high was 9C from 1300 to 1530 when the Hay Meadow count was abandoned for the day. Ground winds were mainly SW 0-5 gusting to 15 km/h, and ridge winds were SW light to moderate. Cloud cover was 90-100% cumulus, altostratus and altocumulus to 1400 when low stratus developed that brought rain and by 1530 all ridges were obscured. Observation was then conducted at Lorette Ponds and finally at Lusk Creek where conditions were also poor and the day was finally abandoned at 1835. Before the rain started there was a reasonable movement of 17 raptors of 6 species between 1113 and 1420 comprising 2a Bald eagles, 1 female/juvenile Northern Harrier, 1u Sharp-shinned Hawk, 1u Cooper’s Hawk, 1a light morph calurus Red-tailed Hawk and 11 Golden Eagles (3a, 3sa, 3j, 2u). Fourteen of the birds moved from Olympic Summit to Skogan Pass and then on to the NW, and the other 3 birds were initially located over Mount Lorette. Resident raptors were a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk hunting above the river, 2 Northern Goshawks (1 calling near the nest site and 1 hunting over Hummingbird Plume Hill), a pair of Red-tailed Hawks and a pair of Golden Eagles, the male of which displayed above Olympic Summit, and 1a Sharp-shinned Hawk and 1a Bald Eagle were seen at Lorette Ponds and Lusk Creek respectively. There was a good selection of other birds species including first seasonal records of 1 Hooded Merganser and 1 Red-naped Sapsucker (both at Lorette Ponds), 5 Yellow-rumped Warblers, including single male Audubon’s and Myrtle subspecies, a pair of Brewer’s Blackbirds, 2 singing Fox Sparrows and 1 White-crowned Sparrow. Other notable birds were 4 drumming Ruffed Grouse, 1 Great Blue Heron that flew low to the south above the river, 1 singing Northern Pygmy-Owl, 1 Belted Kingfisher, 2 Pileated Woodpeckers, 1 Tree Swallow, 2 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 6 Mountain Bluebirds (4m, 2f), 32 American Robins, 4 singing Varied Thrushes, 1 singing Pacific Wren at Troll Falls, 5 American Pipits. 45 Bohemian Waxwings that flew to the north in 2 flocks and 18 Dark-eyed Juncos. There were just 4 visitors at the site today.

11.42 hours (566.7) BAEA 2 (212), NOHA 1 (4), SSHA 1 (13), COHA 1 (5), RTHA 1 (48), GOEA 11 (2225) TOTAL 17 (2594)

Beaver Mines [Day 54] (Peter Sherrington) 0800-1930. The temperature reached a high of 13.5C at 1600 from a low of 1C at 0800 and was 8C when observation ended at 1930. Winds were light, NW-WNW to 1230 and W to 1530 after which they increased to 30-40 km/h W-WSW. Cloud cover was 100% stratus and cumulus all day that thinned after 1000 and gave hazy sunshine and excellent observing conditions thereafter. Raptor migration was initially slow with only 4 birds seen by 1300, but as the winds increased so did the flow of birds which peaked at 17 between 1600 and 1700. The final count of 44 migrants of 11 species seen between 1058 and 1745 comprised 3 Bald Eagles (2a, 1j), 3a Northern Harriers (2m, 1f), 5u Sharp-shinned Hawks, a season high 3 Cooper’s Hawks (2a, 1u), 1a Northern Goshawk, a season high 6 light morph Broad-winged Hawks (1a, 5u), 4 of which soared very high together at 1655, 1u light morph Swainson’s Hawk, 7a calurus Red-tailed Hawks (5 light and 2 dark), 1u light morph Ferruginous Hawk, 12 Golden Eagles (2a, 2sa, 8j) and 2a Peregrine Falcons (1male, 1u). Between 4 and 6 resident Red-tailed Hawks were conspicuous between 1206 and 1930, and often soared to considerable heights in the late afternoon, and a resident male Northern Harrier periodically displayed over the ridge. As I write this at 0700 on Friday, heavy wet snow is falling and rain and snow are forecast for much of the day, but the prospects for migration on Saturday, which will be last day of the count, are good.

11.5 hours (493.6) BAEA 3 (299), NOHA 3 (64), SSHA 5 (71), COHA 3 (12), NOGO 1 (71), BWHA 6 (14), SWHA 1 (3), RTHA 7 (202), FEHA 1 (7), GOEA 12 (1060), PEFA 2 (11) TOTAL 44 (1953)

Steeples (Vance Mattson) No observation.

MOUNT LORETTE SUMMARY COUNT (March 1 to April 22)

DAYS 49

HOURS 566.7

TURKEY VULTURE (TUVU) 0

OSPREY (OSPR) 0

BALD EAGLE (BAEA) 212

NORTHERN HARRIER (NOHA) 4

SHARP-SHINNED HAWK (SSHA) 13

COOPER’S HAWK (COHA) 5

NORTHERN GOSHAWK (NOGO) 24

Accipiter sp. (UA) 0

BROAD-WINGED HAWK (BWHA) 3

SWAINSON’S HAWK (SWHA) 2

RED-TAILED HAWK (RTHA) 48

FERRUGINOUS HAWK (FEHA) 0

ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (RLHA) 22

Buteo sp. (UB) 3

GOLDEN EAGLE (GOEA) 2225

Eagle sp. (UE) 13

AMERICAN KESTREL (AMKE) 4

MERLIN (MERL) 5

GYRFALCON (GYRF) 2

PEREGRINE FALCON (PEFA) 4

PRAIRIE FALCON (PRFA) 1

Falco sp. (UF) 2

Unidentified Raptor (UU) 2

TOTAL 2594