Mount Lorette (29 Oct 2023) 101 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 29, 2023 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Osprey | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Bald Eagle | 10 | 72 | 74 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 7 | 8 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 108 | 138 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 7 | 8 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 29 | 33 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 19 | 24 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 12 | 12 |
| Golden Eagle | 91 | 2719 | 2876 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 10 | 14 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 27 | 45 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 8 | 9 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 9 | 14 |
| Total: | 101 | 3034 | 3283 |
| Observation start time: | 07:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 17:30:00 |
| Total observation time: | 10.25 hours |
| Official Counter | James Bannon |
| Observers: | Allison Zukewich, Theresa Gawron |
Visitors:
12
Weather:
Our start time at 8:15am was cold, temperature at -14C, humidity 53% and clear skies. The west ridge lit up with sun but as the sun rose the moisture in the air became cirrostratus cloud, cutting off our sunshine, until the sun finally rose over Fisher Range and dried out the air, humidity lowering to 32% for most of the rest of the day. Temperature rose to -2C in the late afternoon. Clouds disappeared with several strands of lenticular cloud showing up over Mt Lorette for a brief period in the afternoon. We finished at 6:30 pm.
Winds were light to missing altogether at ground level, mostly from the S, SW.
Raptor Observations:
Flight paths were irregular, with most birds flying mid valley level, landing on Patrick at treeline and desperately hugging the rock to finally gain opposite ridge. Four GE stopped to take a break on the rock. Other birds came from Baldy direction, flew towards Hummingbird plume and over the ski hill. One Bald Eagle was high on ridge top but most others flew up the valley over the Kananaskis river N to S. Flight speeds were slow and many of the birds flapping. One of the eagles took over 5 mins to cross the valley at the end of the day to potentially land near Olympic summit ridge where he was attacked by a treachery of Ravens! Majority of the birds were adults. It was an excellent golden light show with sun bouncing off the ground snow and lighting them up even on the undersides!
Totals were: 91 Golden Eagles (63a, 9sa, 7j, 12u) and 10 Bald Eagles (7a, 2sa3, 1j).
Non-raptor Observations:
Other birds included: gull (sp), Robin, Townsend solitaire, Junco, Redpoll & Pine Grosbeak
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Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
Count data submitted via Dunkadoo – [Project Details]
