Beaver Mines and Steeples, March 13

Friday, March 13 Beaver Mines (Peter Sherrington and Hilary Atkinson). No observation possible. Light to moderate snow that started at 2200 on March 12 fell all day and completely obscured the ridge, and by 2000 there was 22 cm on the ground. At 0800 the temperature was     -12C and steadily dropped all day to -20C at 2000. Winds were ESE-ENE all day, 10-15 km/h gusting to 30 km/h around noon. Birds seen were 4 Canada Geese, 1 Eurasian Collared Dove, 2 Downy Woodpeckers, 1 Hairy Woodpecker, 3 Steller’s Jays, 3 Blue Jays 6 Black-capped Chickadees, 10 Mountain Chickadees, 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch, 20 Evening Grosbeaks, 50 Pine Grosbeaks, 2 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finch of the race littoralis (“Hepburn’s Rosy-Finch”), 1 American Tree Sparrow and 32 Dark-eyed Juncos (2 cismontanus and 30 montanus). Cornell VanRyk saw a female richardsonii Merlin at his house that made two unsuccessful passes at the songbirds at his feeders.

Friday, March 13 Steeples (Vance Mattson). No observation possible. Snow started overnight and the ridges were obscured all day.

Persistent snow also prevented any observation at Mount Lorette.