Beaver Mines, April 27

Monday, April 27 Beaver Mines [Day 63] 0730-2030 (Peter Sherrington and Hilary Atkinson). The temperature at 0730 was 7C, the high at 1100 was 11C, but fell to 8C at 1300, recovered to 10.5C at 1400 and 1500, and then fell to 5C at 1800 where it remained for the rest of the day. Winds were W-WSW all day 35-45 gusting 50-60km to 1600 with the exceptions of 1100 and 1200 when they were 60-70 gusting 80-90 km/h; after 1600 winds moderated to 20-30 km/h. Cloud cover was 100-70% altostratus, altocumulus, cumulus and stratocumulus to 1900 apart from around 0900 when it briefly reduced to 10% cumulus. After 1900 it was 20-40% cumulus that allowed continuous bright sunshine. The ridges to the SW were obscured for much of the day and after 1145 a series of rain showers were blown from the SW that became steady light to moderate rain between 1530 and 1900. Raptor movement was very poor and only 8 migrants were seen between 1059 and 1356 with 5 of these birds recorded between 1343 and 1356. The count was 3u Sharp-shinned Hawks, 2 adult light morph calurus Red-tailed Hawks, 1 juvenile Golden Eagle, 1u American Kestrel and 1 adult male columbarius Merlin. Resident birds were the pair of Northern Harriers with the male hunting at 1347 and the female at 1405, and periodic sightings of usually single hunting Red-tailed Hawks to 1834 with only a single display flight at 0750. Other birds were 2 Canada Geese, 4 Mallards, 1 pair of Northern Pintails, 12 Rock Pigeons, 3 Mourning Doves, 1 pair of Sandhill Cranes, 2 Downy Woodpeckers, 2 Hairy Woodpeckers, 2 Red-shafted Flickers, 2 Steller’s Jays, 3 Blue Jays, 2 Black-billed Magpies, 24 American Crows, 20 Common Ravens, 5 Tree Swallows, 2 Black-capped Chickadees, 4 Mountain Chickadees, 9 American Robins, 36 European Starlings, 20 Evening Grosbeaks, a flock of 40 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches that flew to the N at 1408, 1 Dark-eyed [montanus] Junco, 12 male Red-winged Blackbirds and the first female of the season, 2 male Common Grackles and 1 Orange-crowned Warbler which was the first for the season. Yesterday I forgot to report the first butterfly of the year, a Mourning Cloak, which was on the wing at 1113.

13 hours (793.2) SSHA 3 (115), RTHA 2 (274), GOEA 1 (1147), AMKE 1 (17), MERL 1 (28) TOTAL 8 (2211)