Beaver Mines and Steeples, April 4

Saturday, April 04 Beaver Mines [Day 40] 0645-2030 (Peter Sherrington and Hilary Atkinson). The temperature at 0645 was -11C, the high at 1400, 1600 and 1700 was -5C and it was -7C at 2030, and winds were NE-NNE all day 6-18 km/h. Cloud cover was 100% stratus to 1025 that produced steady light snow that mostly obscured the ridge and added a further 2 cm to the overnight accumulation of 4 cm. After 1025 cloud cover was 60-100% cumulus that gave hazy sunshine and a clear ridge for the rest of the day, although the cloud thickened to 90-100% cumulus and stratus after 1700 and at 2015 light snow again began to fall. There was a slow, sporadic but varied raptor migration with 18 birds of 7 species moving between 1116 and 1812 that comprised 1 adult Bald Eagle, 1 adult male Northern Harrier, 2u Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 adult Northern Goshawk, 4 adult Red-tailed Hawks (3 light morph calurus and 1 dark morph harlani), 6 Golden Eagles (5a, 2sa, 1j) and 1 adult female light grey morph Gyrfalcon. Twelve of the birds were counted between 1416 and 1548. At Mount Lorette Blake Weis reported 46 migrants in 12.58 hours of observation that comprised 2 Bald Eagles (1a, 1j), 2 adult Northern Goshawks, 1 adult dark morph calurus Red-tailed Hawk, 1 light morph Rough-legged Hawk, 39 Golden Eagles (21a, 5sa, 3j, 10u) and 1u female columbarius Merlin that was a first for the season. Other birds seen at Beaver Mines were 2 Canada Geese, 6 Mallards, 1 male Common Merganser, 18 Rock Pigeons, 1 Eurasian Collared Dove, 2 Killdeer, 1 Northern Shrike, 2 Blue Jays, 71 American Crows, 18 Common Ravens, 5 Black-capped Chickadees, 4 Mountain Chickadees, 1 American Robin, 15 European Starlings and 33 Dark-eyed Juncos (3 cismontanus, 30 montanus). The site was again regularly visited by 2 or 3 non-migratory adult Sharp-shinned Hawks between 0910 and 2003 that again periodically cleared the area of birds but no catches were observed. The total lack of grosbeaks and significantly reduced junco numbers today suggest that many songbirds had moved to safer feeding areas.

13.75 hours (478.7) BAEA 1 (230), NOHA 1 (7), SSHA 2 (29), NOGO 1 (33), RTHA 4 (35), GOEA 8 (930), GYRF 1 (3) TOTAL 18 (1338)

Saturday, April 04 Steeples [Day 29] 1215-1815 (Vance Mattson). The temperature was 4C, it was calm and cloud cover was 80-50% cumulus that gave mainly sunny conditions. The only migrants were single adult Golden Eagles at 1528 and 1653. Non-migrant birds were 3 Golden Eagles (2a, 1j) that included pair flights by the adults and included strong display flights by the male bird; 1 adult Bald Eagle, 1 adult Sharp-shinned Hawk and two sightings of Red-tailed Hawks.

6 hours (153.3) GOEA 2 (308) TOTAL 2 (422)