Beaver Mines and Steeple, March 27

Friday, March 27 Beaver Mines [Day 32] 0700-2020 (Peter Sherrington and Hilary Atkinson, assisted by Asher Warkentin). The temperature at 0700 was 0C, the high at 1300, 1600 and 1700 was 5C and it was 2C at 2020. Winds were again SW-WSW all day 30-40 gusting 60 km/h and cloud cover was 40-100% thin mixtures of altocumulus, cirrus, cumulus and lenticular that allowed sunshine or hazy sunshine all day and generally provided superlative observing conditions. A season-high total of 144 raptors of 8 species were counted between 0826 and 1934 that comprised 18 Bald Eagles (17a, 1sa), 4 Sharp-shinned Hawks (3a, 1u), 3 Cooper’s Hawks (1a, 2u) that were the first of the season, 4 adult Northern Goshawks, 5 light morph calurus Red-tailed Hawks (4a, 1u), 1 light morph Rough-legged Hawk, a season-high 107 Golden Eagles (99a, 1sa, 7j) and 2 columbarius Merlins (1 adult female and 1u). Movement was initially slow and sporadic with only 19 birds counted between 0826 and 1300 but subsequent movement was steady and peaked at 29 birds between 1500 and 1600 with 25 birds occurring in the following hour. Five birds were seen after 1900. At Mount Lorette Caroline Lambert reported a disappointing 26 migrants in 13.67 hours of observation that comprised 1 adult Bald Eagle, 1u Northern Goshawk, 22 Golden Eagles (12a, 1sa, 9u) and 2 unidentified eagles. Other birds seen at Beaver Mines were 16 Canada Geese, 11 Rock Pigeons, 1 Eurasian Collared Dove, 1 Killdeer (the first for the site this season), 1 male Red-shafted Flicker, 1 Steller’s Jay, 4 Blue Jays, 1 American Crow, 24 Common Ravens, 1 Black-capped Chickadee, 6 Mountain Chickadees, 23 European Starlings, 15 Evening Grosbeaks, 22 Pine Grosbeaks, a flock of 15 flying Grey-crowned Rosy Finches and 33 Dark-eyed Juncos (3 cismontanus and 30 montanus).

13.33 hours (371.2) BAEA 18 (182), SSHA 4 (11), COHA 3 (3), NOGO 4 (23), RTHA 5 (22), RLHA 1 (50), GOEA 107 (625), MERL 2 (4) TOTAL 144 (930)

Friday, March 27 [Day 23] 1200-1815 (Vance Mattson). The temperature was 7C, the wind was moderate S and 100% altostratus and cumulus cloud cover gave dreary conditions. Only 4 migrant Golden Eagles (3a, 1u) were seen that moved north between 1317 and 1551. Non-migrants were single adults of both eagle species.

6.25 hours (118) GOEA 4 (293) TOTAL 4 (400)