Mount Lorette (16 Mar 2024) 156 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 16, 2024 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bald Eagle | 2 | 24 | 24 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Eagle | 154 | 914 | 914 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total: | 156 | 940 | 940 |
| Observation start time: | 07:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 10.57 hours |
| Official Counter | Blake Weis |
| Observers: | Lynn Macintosh |
Visitors:
At least 60 visitors stopped to talk. Thanks to Will & Sarah and to my dad Tim for staying to help spot migrants!
Weather:
The temperate was -2 C at the beginning of observation, it rose to +13 in the afternoon, then fell to +10 as we were leaving. Cloud cover was mostly high cirrus covering 25-50% of the sky which created excellent spotting and ageing/ID conditions for most of the day. Ground wind was mostly below 10 km/h with some gusts between 10 and 20. Around 2 PM the direction switched from SW to NW. The Nakiska Ridgetop weather station is not reading wind at the moment, and ridge wind was a bit tough to judge, but was probably light to moderate (below 40 km/h) since most of the migrants were soaring and those that were gliding were low and had to do some flapping. The direction probably shifted around the same time it did at ground level as may of the high-soaring birds later in the day seemed to get pushed back south a bit as they were gaining height.
Raptor Observations:
The count for the day included 154 Golden Eagles (116 adults, 1 subadult, 37 unaged) and 2 adult Bald Eagles. Route, flight style and observing conditions all varied greatly throughout the day. Before 2 PM most of the migrants were soaring slowly and not too high which made spotting and ageing easy. After 2 PM the migrants were getting higher and higher and started to become backlit which made observing conditions much more difficult. Most of the movement was on the Kananaskis Range to the west where they were often soaring very high, though some used the Fisher Range to the east, especially later in the day. Those birds on the eastern ridges were usually gliding and flapping low, below mountain-top height. The peak was between 11:45 and 12:15 when about 40 migrants were counted. A pair of local adult Bald Eagles perched near the site in the morning. Later a sub-adult 3 Bald Eagle was in the area but it seemed to be escorted away by one of the local adults. At least one of the resident Goshawk pair was seen several times over Hummingbird Plume Hill and the west side of the valley.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other birds included 1 Canada Goose, 1 American Three-toed Woodpecker, 3 Hairy Woodpeckers, 1 Pileated Woodpecker, 3 Canada Jays, 1 Black-billed Magpie, 7 Common Ravens, 3 Black-capped Chickadees, 1 Boreal Chickadee, 1 Brown Creeper, 1 American Dipper, 2 European Starlings, 2 American Robins, 10 Bohemian Waxwings, and 2 Common Redpolls. At least 3 white-tailed deer were around, and 1 bighorn sheep was spotted on a distant cliff.
Report submitted by ()
Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
