Mount Lorette (03 Oct 2026) 98 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 03, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 | 4 | 14 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 5 | 14 | 42 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| American Goshawk | 1 | 1 | 13 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 2 | 14 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Golden Eagle | 85 | 160 | 426 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Unknown Eagle | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Unknown Raptor | 3 | 4 | 8 |
| Total: | 98 | 188 | 554 |
| Observation start time: | 08:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:15:00 |
| Total observation time: | 10.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Blake Weis |
| Observers: | Christa Clifford |
Visitors:
At least 80 people stopped at the site, and 6 came to look for migrants.
Weather:
The temperature was 1C at the start of the count, the high was 12, and it was 9 as we were leaving. In the morning and early afternoon wind was from the SW, nearly calm at ground level, and moderate diminishing to light at ridge level. Between 2:30 and 3 PM ground wind briefly changed to NW before switching back to SW, and increased to 10-20 km/h. Ridge wind increased to about 20 km/h gusting around 30. In the morning and late evening conditions were very good for spotting and ageing, with 50-70% cloud cover that rarely blocked the sun. In the afternoon and early evening the sky was overcast, which made ageing difficult.
Raptor Observations:
Movement was fairly steady for the first 2-3 hours, but slowed to a trickle after. Migration picked up with the change in wind just before 3 PM, and remained strong until almost sunset. Early in the day migrants were low and split between east and west ridges. When it got windier they were all on the east ridges, often gliding quite high. The count was 98 migrants including 85 Golden Eagles (12 a, 8 j, 6 sa, 7 ui, 52u), 1 juvenile Bald Eagle, 5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 American Goshawk, 1 Rough-legged Hawk, 1 unidentified accipitrine hawk, 1 unidentified eagle, and 3 small unidentified raptors. Local raptors included 1 adult Goshawk and 1 adult Red-tailed Hawk.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other birds were 2 Common Mergansers, 1 Belted Kingfisher, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 2 Hairy Woodpeckers, 2 Northern Flickers, 1 Black-billed Magpie, 8 Common Ravens, 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 4 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch, 1 Brown Creeper, 1 American Dipper, 2 Varied Thrushes, 70 American Robins, 1 Red Crossbill, 12 Pine Siskins, and 2 White-crowned Sparrows. Some insects were still active, such as mourning cloak and comma butterflies, drone flies, looper moths, and many smaller flying insects (midges?). A bat was flying over the river in the evening.
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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]
