Beaver Mines and Steeples, April 14

Tuesday, April 14 Beaver Mines [Day 50] 0630-2030 (Peter Sherrington and Hilary Atkinson). The temperature at 0630 was 0C, the high at 1700 was 8.5C and it was 5C at 2030. Winds were WSW-SW 25 gusting to 40 km/h to 1900 when they were W 20 km/h and became very light W at 2000, Cloud cover was 40-100% altostratus, altocumulus and cumulus that gave hazy sunshine for much of the day to 1700 after which it was 100% uniform grey stratus to the end of observation. Observing conditions were very good which was just as well as all movement was high to very high and several birds needed up to four minutes of telescope observation before an identification could be made. The day’s count was 24 migrants of 8 species that moved between 1104 and 1720 and comprised 1 juvenile Bald Eagle, 1u Northern Harrier, 2u Sharp-shinned Hawks, 2 light morph Swainson’s Hawks (1a, 1u), 10 adult Red-tailed Hawks (9 calurus: 5 light and 4 dark morphs, and 1 dark morph harlani), 1 unidentified dark morph Buteo, 4 Golden Eagles (3a, 1j), 2 American Kestrels (1 female, 1u) and 1 male columbarius Merlin. Non-migrants were 3 pairs of Red-tailed Hawks and a hunting adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk at 1824. At Mount Lorette Dan Parliament reported 25 migrants of 4 species that comprised 6 Bald Eagles (1a, 1sa, 2j, 2u), 3u Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1u Northern Goshawk and 18 Golden Eagles (8a, 1sa, 2j, 4u). Other birds seen at Beaver Mines were 10 Canada Geese, 3 American Wigeon, 18 Mallards, 30 Green-winged Teal, 3 Wild Turkeys, 18 Rock Pigeons, 7 Greater Sandhill Cranes, and 1 Lesser Sandhill Crane that flew low to the SW in the company of 3 Greater Sandhill Cranes at 0945, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 1 Hairy Woodpecker, 3 Red-shafted Flickers, 3 Blue Jays, 1 Black-billed Magpie, 37 American Crows, 56 Common Ravens, 2 Black-capped Chickadees, 2 Mountain Chickadees, 7 American Robins, 10 European Starlings, 5 Evening Grosbeaks, 4 Pine Grosbeaks, 12 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches, 110 Dark-eyed Juncos (3 hyemalis, 7 cismontanus and 100 montanus), and 1 male Red-winged Blackbird.

14 hours (616) BAEA 1 (320), NOHA 1 (21), SSHA 2 (47), SWHA 2 (3), RTHA 10 (187), UB 1 (6), GOEA 4 (1055), AMKE 2 (4), MERL 1 (12) TOTAL 24 (1781)

Tuesday, April 14 Steeples [Day 38] 1245-1800 (Vance Mattson). The temperature was 10C, it was calm and cloud cover was 100% altostratus, cumulus and lenticular that slightly obscured the ridges from 1730 to 1800. No migrants were seen and there were only brief sightings of non-migrants that comprised 5 Turkey Vultures, a pair of Bald Eagles, a Red-tailed Hawk seen four times and a single resident Golden Eagle.

5.75 hours (204.3) TOTAL 0 (482)