Beaver Mines and Steeples, March 3

Tuesday, March 03 Beaver Mines [Day 10] 0720-1820 (Peter Sherrington and Hilary Atkinson). The temperature at 0720 was 3C, the high at 1300 and 1400 was 7C and it was still 5C at 1820. Winds were strong W and occasionally WSW all day, 30-40 gusting 50 km/h in the morning but increasing to 55-65 gusting to 70-90 km/h throughout the afternoon. It was cloudless to 1430 after which 70-20 % cumulus and altocumulus developed to 1630 when 90-100% altostratus, altocumulus and cumulus thickened for the rest of the day. Raptor movement was very slow all day with 12 birds of 4 species seen between 0919 and 1708 that comprised 3 Bald Eagles (1a, 2j), 3 light morph Rough-legged Hawks that all moved to the WNW between 1550 and 1559, 5 Golden Eagles (4a, 1sa) and the season’s first Gyrfalcon, an immature very light grey intermediate morph that flew to the NNW at 1311. Other birds seen were 40 Canada Geese including a flock of 30 that flew very high to the NE at 1806, 8 Rock Pigeons, 1 Eurasian Collared Dove, 2 Downy Woodpeckers, 1 Clark’s Nutcracker, 25 Common Ravens, 8 Black-capped Chickadees, 16 Mountain Chickadees, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 9 European Starlings, 5 Evening Grosbeaks, 60 Pine Grosbeaks and a flock of 12 Snow Buntings that flew to the NE above the valley at 1810.

11 hours (98.75) BAEA 3 (64), RLHA 3 (26), GOEA 5 (72), GYRF 1 (1) TOTAL 12 (167)

Tuesday, March 03 Steeples [Day 3] 1530-1700 (Vance Mattson). The temperature was 9C, winds were moderate S and cloud cover was 100% thin altostratus and cumulus that gave partly sunny conditions. An undifferentiated immature Bald Eagle that glided north as Vance arrived at the site was the only migrant seen. Single non-migrant adults of each eagle species were also seen, with the Golden Eagle travelling the entire length of the ridge before perching on the southern flank of Mount Bill Nye at 1656.

1.5 hours (8.5) BAEA 1 (3) TOTAL 1 (6)