Beaver Mines and Steeples, March 6

Friday, March 06 Beaver Mines [Day 13] 0700-1730 (Peter Sherrington and Hilary Atkinson). The temperature at 0700 was 6C, the high from 1100-1400 was 10C, which equals the highest temperature this year, and it was 5C at 1730 when observation ceased because of steady light rain. Winds were WSW-W and occasionally SW or SSW all day10-20 gusting 40 km/h to 1300 then 30 gusting 50 km/h for the rest of the day. Cloud cover was thin altostratus to 1200 which gave hazy sunshine but thickened in the afternoon to 100% altostratus and altocumulus to 1400, 100% cumulus and altostratus to 1630 and finally 100% stratocumulus that produced light rain for the rest of the observation period. Although migration conditions appeared to be good only 6 migrants were seen between 0742 and 1513 comprising 1 adult Bald Eagle, 3 Northern Goshawks (1a, 2u) and 2 adult Golden Eagles. Other birds seen were 3 Canada Geese, 5 Mallards (3 male, 2 female), 9 Rock Pigeons, 1 Eurasian Collared Dove, 1 Great Blue Heron that flew low from the SW at 0932 and landed in the creek and was the earliest seen in the area by three-weeks, 2 Downy Woodpeckers, 2 Black-billed Magpies, a flock of 14 American Crows that were the first of the year, 36 Common Ravens, 10 Black-capped Chickadees, 12 Mountain Chickadees, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 2 White-breasted Nuthatches, 19 European Starlings, 6 Bohemian Waxwings, 14 Evening Grosbeaks, 51 Pine Grosbeaks and the first “Oregon” Dark-eyed Junco for the site this year although they were first seen elsewhere in the study area on March 2.  The area is under a winter storm warning with heavy snow forecast to start around midnight so the prospect for observation tomorrow is not encouraging.

10.5 hours (131.8) BAEA 1 (74), NOGO 3 (7), GOEA 2 (88) TOTAL 6 (202)

Friday, March 06 Steeples [Day 6] 1300-1700 (Vance Mattson). The temperature was 9C, winds were strong SW and cloud cover was 100% altostratus. Two adult migrant Golden Eagles were seen and non-migrant birds were two sightings of single adult Golden Eagles and 7 Bald Eagles (6a, 1j) with 3 pairs seen soaring together at separate times. The forecast is calling for snow tomorrow.

4 hours (17.25) GOEA 2 (11) TOTAL 2 (16)