RMERF counts, April 1

Sunday, April 1 Mount Lorette [Day 28] 0720-1300 (Caroline Lambert, assisted by Rosemary). The temperature at 0720 was -14C, the high was -5C at 1200 and it was -6C at 1300 when the count was abandoned for the day. Ground winds were light SW to 1100, E 5-10 gusting 20 km/h after 1100 and N 5-10 gusting 25 km/h at 1230. Ridge winds were light to moderate W to 1200 and moderate N after 1230. Cloud cover was initially 80% altostratus and cirrostratus that reduced to 20% at 1000 and gave unexpected but welcome sunshine. By 1100 cloud was beginning to envelope the peaks and by 1200 cover was 100% stratus that lowered and brought snow at 1230, obscuring all the mountains and bringing the day’s count to an end at 1300. A total of 6 migrating eagles, 5 Golden Eagles (4a, 1j) and 1 unidentified eagle, were seen between 1055 and 1215 with 4 of the Golden Eagles moving between 1100 and 1200. The juvenile Golden Eagle moved on the western route and the rest were to the east. A resident Northern Goshawk called east of the river, and other birds in the area were 1 Killdeer, 1 Grey Jay, 5 Common Ravens, 1 Varied Thrush that sang east of the river and was the first for the season, and 60 Bohemian Waxwings. The brief period of sunshine lured 5 visitors to the site.

5.67 hours (312.8) GOEA 5 (1799), UE 1 (21) TOTAL 6 (1989)

Sunday, April 1 Beaver Mines [Day 36] 0700-1300 (Peter Sherrington). The temperature at 0700 was -11C and the high was -6C from 1100 to 1300 when the count was abandoned for the day. Winds were light NW-ESE to 1130 when ESE winds gusted to 30 km/h that brought snow and low stratus that had completely obscured the ridge by 1300. Cloud cover was altostratus that thinned enough to provide hazy sunshine between 1100 and 1230. Only 4 migrant raptors were seen: 1 juvenile light morph Ferruginous Hawk flying low in the valley at 1024, 1 adult Sharp-shinned Hawk that flew high to the NNW at 1139, 1u female columbarius Merlin also flying low and the season’s first Northern Harrier, an unaged female that disappeared into snow over the ridge at 1240. Snow persisted for the rest of the day and the ridge remained obscured.

6 hours (345.7) NOHA 1 (1), SSHA 1 (8), FEHA 1 (4)

Sunday, April 1 Steeples (Vance Mattson) NO OBSERVATION (Weather). It snowed off-and-on all day and the valley and mountains were entirely obscured