Mount Lorette (23 Oct 2026) 39 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 23, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 | 37 | 47 |
| Northern Harrier | 1 | 6 | 10 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 | 55 | 83 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| American Goshawk | 1 | 10 | 22 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 12 | 24 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 13 | 16 |
| Golden Eagle | 35 | 1673 | 1939 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 5 | 7 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 14 | 18 |
| Total: | 39 | 1843 | 2209 |
| Observation start time: | 10:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 7.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Ethan Denton |
| Observers: | Christina Furtado |
Visitors:
Only one person braved the weather today.
Weather:
Heavy clouds and snow blocked observation until 11:00 or so, and low clouds hung around for most of the day even after the system passed. The temperature began at 0, rose to 1, and returned to 0.
Ridgewinds tended to be low, as – for the most part – did ground winds. Both came from the North. The pressure rose by a couple points in the afternoon.
Raptor Observations:
For the first several hours of the day, you would have been lucky to see an eagle if it had flown directly in and landed on the bench.
By 11, however, the snow stopped and the blanket of clouds that had swamped the ridgelines began to shift. A young American Goshawk tested the waters and was quickly followed by a burst of 10 Golden Eagles. This made for our biggest single-hour total of the day.
In total, 35 Goldens (17ad, 4sub, 2juv, 3ui, 9u) came by today. All but one flew low across the Eastern ridge. Most appeared over the bumps or even over South Fisher, until the clouds cleared at Lorette and the peak peeked out, at which point our last couple Eagles were observed drifting across from there.
Non-eagles were low, includeding the aforementioned Goshawk, a subadult Bald Eagle, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and a male Northern Harrier ghosting across the grey skies.
Non-raptor Observations:
The American Tree Sparrows along the creek were joined by one each of Song and Swamp Sparrows. The male Belted Kingfisher hunted along the river, a pair of Pine Grosbeaks frequented the meadows edges, and a small flock of Bohemian Waxwings showed up in the midafternoon.
It was a good day for waterfowl over the Eastern ridge, with 4 distinct groups of Canada Geese and a small flock of unidentified ducks whistling high overhead.
Report submitted by Ethan Denton (ethan@suechick.com)
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]
