Beaver Mines and Steeples, April 11

Saturday, April 11 Beaver Mines [Day 47] 0645-2030 (Peter Sherrington and Hilary Atkinson). The temperature at 0645 was -5C, it dropped to -7C from 1000 to 1200, rose briefly to a high of  -4C at 1600 and was -8C at 2030. Winds were NNE-NE 10-30 gusting to 40 km/h around noon and light ENE after 1900. Cloud cover was 100% stratus that produced moderate to heavy snow to 1230 when the ridge cleared to 1310 although very light snow persisted. Light to moderate snow then resumed and apart from a few flurries the ridge remained clear after 1450. There was 9 cm of fresh snow on the ground at 0700 and a further 16 cm fell to 1450. After 1450 cloud cover was 80-40% cumulus to 1900 that gave mainly sunny and good observing conditions, and was then 100% broken stratocumulus for the rest of the day. A total of 9 migrants of 4 species were seen between 1610 and 1836 that comprised 1 adult Bald Eagle, 1 adult Sharp-shinned Hawk, 6 adult Red-tailed Hawks (4 calurus (3 light and 1 dark) and 2 dark morph harlani) and 1 adult Golden Eagle that was the first migrant of the day. Because of persistent heavy snow at Mount Lorette Blake Weis could not start the count until 1545, but although the ridges partially cleared 4.5 hours of observation failed to locate any migrants. At Beaver Mines when the snow cleared for the first time at 1230 it revealed that the shallow pond adjacent to the creek was covered with water birds that comprised 17 Canada Geese, 2 Northern Shoveler, 4 American Wigeon, 56 Mallards, 4 Northern Pintails, 16 Green-winged Teal, 1 Semipalmated Plover, 10 Killdeer, 8 Semipalmated Sandpipers and 3 Wilson’s Snipe; they were joined at 1648 by a pair of Sandhill Cranes that fed and allopreened, and at 1730 by a Great Blue Heron. Other birds seen were 6 Wild Turkeys, 1 Eurasian Collared Dove, 2 adult California Gulls that flew SW at 1648, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 1 Red-shafted Flicker, 5 Blue Jays, 2 Black-billed Magpies, 4 American Crows, 5 Common Ravens, 6 Black-capped Chickadees, 4 Mountain Chickadees, 2 White-breasted Nuthatches, 29 American Robins, 7 European Starlings, 2 Evening Grosbeaks, 1 Pine Grosbeak, 111 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches of which 11 were the subspecies littoralis, 2 Common Redpolls, 1 American Tree Sparrow and 112 Dark-eyed Juncos (2 hyemalis, 10 cismontanus and 100 montanus).

13.75 hours (574.2) BAEA 1 (314), SSHA 1 (45), RTHA 6 (163), GOEA 1 (1040), TOTAL 9 (1718)

Saturday, April 11 Steeples (Vance Mattson). No observation possible. The ridges were mostly or partly obscured all day with some brief clearings. Vance went to the site from 1430 to 1500 but by the time he arrived the ridge was obscured again. He continued to monitor the ridge from home but conditions did not improve.