Beaver Mines, April 26

Sunday, April 26 Beaver Mines [Day 62] 0730-2030 (Peter Sherrington and Hilary Atkinson). The temperature at 0730 was 5C, the high at 1700 was 14C and it was 10C at 2030. Winds were WSW-W all day 35-45 gusting 55 km/h that increased to gusts of 70-80 km/h between 1300 and 1600. Cloud cover was 20-100% continuously varying mixtures of altostratus, altocumulus, cirrus, cumulus and lenticular that allowed sunshine or hazy sunshine all day and gave excellent viewing conditions for the mainly high to very high flying migrants. There was a steady stream of 50 migrants of 13 species between 0909 and 2012 that comprised 1 adult Turkey Vulture, 4 Ospreys, 6 Bald Eagles (5a, 1j), 2u male Northern Harriers, 9 Sharp-shinned Hawks (2a, 7u), 4 Cooper’s Hawks (3a, 1u), 2 adult Northern Goshawks, 2 adult light morph Broad-winged Hawks, 2 light morph calurus Red-tailed Hawks (1a, 1u), 12 Golden Eagles (1a, 4sa, 6j, 1u), 3 American Kestrels (2 female, 1 male), 1u male columbarius Merlin and 2 adult Peregrine Falcons (1 male, 1 female). Thirteen birds moved before noon and the highest hourly counts were 10 (1600-1700) and 9 (1700-1800). Resident birds were a pair of Northern Harriers with the male only seen displaying at 0755, and 2 pairs of Red-tailed Hawks that were frequently seen hunting; occasional interloping single adult birds were seen with soaring pairs and which generally evinced high energy displays by the affronted males. Other birds were 4 Canada Geese, 10 Rock Pigeons, 1 Mourning Dove,  2 pairs of Sandhill Cranes, 1 Downy Woodpeckers, 1 Hairy Woodpecker, 5 Blue Jays, 19 American Crows, 15 Common Ravens, 4 Tree Swallows, 4 Mountain Chickadees, 21 American Robins, 6 European Starlings, 10 Evening Grosbeaks, a flock of 20 Pine Siskins that flew to the N at 1251 which were the first for the season, 3 Dark-eyed Juncos (1 cismontanus and 2 montanus), 6 male Red-winged Blackbirds, and 2 male Common Grackles. This afternoon Gord Petersen and Cathy Scrimshaw saw and photographed 2 Whimbrels south of the municipal land-fill site near Lundbreck: this is a new species for the study area.

13 hours (780.2) TUVU 1 (12), OSPR 4 (10), BAEA 6 (365), NOHA 2 (42), SSHA 9 (112), COHA 4 (22), NOGO 2 (50), BWHA 2 (20), RTHA 2 (272), GOEA 12 (1146), AMKE 3 (16), MERL 1 (27), PEFA 2 (14) TOTAL 50 (2203)