Mount Lorette (22 Mar 2026) 331 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 22, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bald Eagle | 13 | 40 | 40 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| American Goshawk | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 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 | 312 | 682 | 682 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 1 | 10 | 10 |
| Unknown Raptor | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Total: | 331 | 741 | 741 |
| Observation start time: | 06:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 19:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 12.3 hours |
| Official Counter | Cameron Harvey |
| Observers: | Caroline Lambert, Christina Furtado, Michelle Hart |
Visitors:
11 visitors throughout the day brought their own binoculars and stopped to help spot. Some staying for several hours and being the first to spot several migrants. Thank-you very much for the help! Many other visitors stopped to say high, observers were too busy counting raptors to count total visitors today.
Weather:
The temperature was -6 C at the start of the count rising to a high of 2 C and falling to 0 C at count’s end. Surface winds were generally Beaufort 2-3 from the SW with a few gusts up to Beaufort 5. Nakiska Ridgetop was not recording wind data, but large plumes of snow off ridge lines were visible most of the day indicating strong ridgetop, and high level, winds from the west. Cloud cover was scattered throughout the day with heavier cloud cover to the west and mostly open to the east, cloud types were generally cumulus, stratocumulus and altostratus.
Raptor Observations:
The count ended up with 331 migrant raptors including 312 Golden Eagles (121 a, 12 ui, 179 u), 13 Bald Eagles (6 a, 6 sa, 1 j) 1 American Goshawk, 1 Merlin, 1 unknown accipitrine , 1 unknown eagle and 2 unknown raptor. Raptor flight today was generally very high over the ridges and very fast. Fast tucked glides and little time spent soaring made aging difficult. The flight path was high over the east ridge for most of the day with the odd eagle seen over Nakiska. Around 17:00 MST there was a major switch in the flightpath with a large push of eagles going over the west ridges. Strong backlit conditions on the west ridge at this time made aging impossible. Non-migrant raptors included a resident American Goshawk, one resident Golden Eagle and two resident Bald Eagles.
Non-raptor Observations:
The Northern Pygmy-owl was heard calling several times in the afternoon, but was not seen. Also notable was a lone male Mountain Bluebird and a Northern Shrike which both made an appearance in the last hour of the count. Other non-raptors seen include: 3 Varied Thrush, 2 Northern Flickers, 1 Song Sparrow, 14 Bohemian Waxwings, 5 Dark-eyed Juncos, 2 Canada Geese, 1 Canada Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Pine Siskin, American Robin, European Starling, and Common Raven were present.
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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 Trektellen.org – [Project Details]
