Beaver Mines and Steeples, March 4

Wednesday, March 04 Beaver Mines [Day 11] 0715-1830 (Peter Sherrington and Hilary Atkinson). Snow fell overnight and ended at 0720 leaving 3 cm of fresh snow on the ground. It also snowed heavily between 0825 and 0910 producing a further 1.5 cm on the ground, but the rest of the day was clear and mainly sunny except for extensive blowing snow in the valley between 1200 and 1500. The temperature at 0715 was -1C, the high at 1400 was 3C and it was 0C at 1830. Winds were mainly WSW all day 30-40 km/h gusting to 60 km/h in the morning, to 70 km/h to 1500 and to 50 km/h for the rest of the day. Apart from the periods of snow, for the rest of the day cumulus cloud cover ranged from 0 to 50% and varied rapidly as cloud swept to the WSW from the Continental Divide, but between 1200 and 1500 it was mainly cloudless. Raptor movement was again slow and sporadic with 10 birds of 3 species moving between 0808 and 1734 of which 6 were seen after 1511. The count was 3 Bald Eagles (2a, 1 late subadult), 2 light morph Rough-legged Hawks and 5 adult Golden Eagles. Other birds seen were 11 Canada Geese, 12 Rock Pigeons, 1 Eurasian Collared Dove, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 1 Hairy Woodpecker, 2 Steller’s Jays, 3 Blue Jays, 23 Common Ravens, 10 Black-capped Chickadees, 16 Mountain Chickadees, 4 European Starlings, 6 Evening Grosbeaks, 50 Pine Grosbeaks, a flock of 40 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches that flew north at 1909 and 1 hyemalis Dark-eyed Junco.

11.25 hours (110) BAEA 3 (67), RLHA 2 (28), GOEA 5 (77) TOTAL 10 (177)

Wednesday, March 04 Steeples [Day 4] 1530-1745 (Vance Mattson).  The temperature was 8C, cloud cover was 40% cumulus that gave mainly sunny conditions and it was calm. Migrant raptors were 1 adult Bald Eagle, 1 adult Northern Goshawk that was the first of the season and 2 Golden Eagles (1a, 1j). An adult resident Golden Eagle was also seen,

2.25 hours (10.75) BAEA 1 (4), NOGO 1 (1), GOEA 2 (5) TOTAL 4 (10)