Mount Lorette (03 Oct 2026) 98 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 03, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 | 4 | 14 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 5 | 14 | 42 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| American Goshawk | 1 | 1 | 13 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 2 | 14 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Golden Eagle | 85 | 160 | 426 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Unknown Eagle | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Unknown Raptor | 3 | 4 | 8 |
| Total: | 98 | 188 | 554 |
| Observation start time: | 08:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:15:00 |
| Total observation time: | 10.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Blake Weis |
| Observers: | Christa Clifford |
Visitors:
At least 80 people stopped at the site, and 6 came to look for migrants.
Weather:
The temperature was 1C at the start of the count, the high was 12, and it was 9 as we were leaving. In the morning and early afternoon wind was from the SW, nearly calm at ground level, and moderate diminishing to light at ridge level. Between 2:30 and 3 PM ground wind briefly changed to NW before switching back to SW, and increased to 10-20 km/h. Ridge wind increased to about 20 km/h gusting around 30. In the morning and late evening conditions were very good for spotting and ageing, with 50-70% cloud cover that rarely blocked the sun. In the afternoon and early evening the sky was overcast, which made ageing difficult.
Raptor Observations:
Movement was fairly steady for the first 2-3 hours, but slowed to a trickle after. Migration picked up with the change in wind just before 3 PM, and remained strong until almost sunset. Early in the day migrants were low and split between east and west ridges. When it got windier they were all on the east ridges, often gliding quite high. The count was 98 migrants including 85 Golden Eagles (12 a, 8 j, 6 sa, 7 ui, 52u), 1 juvenile Bald Eagle, 5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 American Goshawk, 1 Rough-legged Hawk, 1 unidentified accipitrine hawk, 1 unidentified eagle, and 3 small unidentified raptors. Local raptors included 1 adult Goshawk and 1 adult Red-tailed Hawk.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other birds were 2 Common Mergansers, 1 Belted Kingfisher, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 2 Hairy Woodpeckers, 2 Northern Flickers, 1 Black-billed Magpie, 8 Common Ravens, 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 4 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch, 1 Brown Creeper, 1 American Dipper, 2 Varied Thrushes, 70 American Robins, 1 Red Crossbill, 12 Pine Siskins, and 2 White-crowned Sparrows. Some insects were still active, such as mourning cloak and comma butterflies, drone flies, looper moths, and many smaller flying insects (midges?). A bat was flying over the river in the evening.
Report submitted by ()
Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
Count data submitted via Trektellen.org – [Project Details]
Mount Lorette (02 Oct 2026) 48 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 02, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Bald Eagle | 2 | 3 | 13 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 8 | 9 | 37 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 2 | 2 | 14 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Golden Eagle | 36 | 75 | 341 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Total: | 48 | 90 | 456 |
| Observation start time: | 07:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 17:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 10 hours |
| Official Counter | Ethan Denton , Ruth Morrow |
| Observers: |
Visitors:
About 80 people dropped by today
Weather:
The sky was overcast and threatened to turn for most of the day, but the weather never fully materialised in the valley. The very edge of rain touched our count site a couple times, but the Eastern ridge was never properly obscured. Temps ranged from 3 to 10 degrees, and the wind stayed low for the most part.
Raptor Observations:
Golden Eagle movement got off to a quick start, with a good push of birds along Patrick and the bumps. Despite the promising start, the passage dried up quickly and we finished with only 36 for the day. Nine Goldens in the first full hour of observation represented the busiest point of the day.
As well as GOEAs, we observed 8 Sharp-shinned Hawks and a brace each of Bald Eagle and Red-tailed Hawk.
The resident Goshawk and a resident Golden both made appearances.
Non-raptor Observations:
It was mostly a quiet day on the non-raptor front,but a fascinating moment in the late morning saw approximately 30 Common Loons swirling around at high-elevation, gaining height before moving at great speed southwards over the valley.
Other birds of note included an adult American Herring Gull over the Eastern ridge, as well as a young Common Merganser apparently molting into adult plumage.
Report submitted by Ethan Denton (ethan@suechick.com)
Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
Count data submitted via Trektellen.org – [Project Details]
Mount Lorette (01 Oct 2026) 42 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 01, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 | 1 | 29 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Golden Eagle | 39 | 39 | 305 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Unknown Raptor | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Total: | 42 | 42 | 408 |
| Observation start time: | 07:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 11 hours |
| Official Counter | Lynette MacCulloch |
| Observers: | Linda Hickey |
Visitors:
36 visitors came by , many were quite interested in what we were doing, most of them were international visitors and quite thrilled with our citizen science work.
Weather:
A frosty morning upon arrival at the observation site, the temperature was minus 5. Once the sun came over the mountains it warmed up to 8 degrees and then settled at 7 at departure. Lovely blue skies dominated till mid-afternoon when cirrus clouds began to spread and by end of day there were stratus clouds in the western sky and scattered cirrus elsewhere. the wind was mostly from the southeast and barely more than a few gusts. Ridge winds were low from the south-west. High winds were from the southwest and west and gradually got stronger than light to moderate.
Raptor Observations:
The first raptor appeared around 11 am flying over the bumps and escaping identification. The first Golden Eagle followed soon over Patrick and then then Bumps. 39 Golden Eagles, 17a,14 Ua, 8 sa, 1 Juvenile Bald Eagle and 1 Sharp Shinned Hawk were seen migrating. A Juvenile Goshawk, Adult Goshawk and 2 non migrating Sharp-shinned Hawks were seen in the valley. The eagles appeared over the Bumps or Patrick all day with the exception of the last few which were high over Lorette and we could follow them to Patrick and the bumps.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other birds were 4 Black-capped Chickadees, 13 Robins, 2 juvenile White-crowned Sparrows, a Magpie, a Crow, a Flicker, 2 Juvenile Franklin Gulls, 2 Common Mergansers and the Ruffed Grouse drumming
Two White-tailed Deer were in the meadow.
Predictions:
Given today was such a late start I would be surprised if the eagles are up very early tomorrow.
Report submitted by ()
Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
Count data submitted via Trektellen.org – [Project Details]
Mount Lorette (30 Sep 2026) 151 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 30, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Bald Eagle | 4 | 10 | 10 |
| Northern Harrier | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 14 | 28 | 28 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| American Goshawk | 5 | 12 | 12 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 1 | 12 | 12 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Golden Eagle | 118 | 270 | 270 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Total: | 151 | 370 | 370 |
| Observation start time: | 07:15:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:30:00 |
| Total observation time: | 11.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Graeme Dunlop |
| Observers: | Peter Lloyd |
Visitors:
At least 300 people passed the site, about 100 stopped to chat and a handful stayed for a while to look for eagles.
Weather:
A cold front had passed through overnight bringing sunny but cooler weather. Fresh snow lay on the mountains above c.2000m. The temperature at 0815 was 0C, the high at 1500 was 8C and it was 3C at 1930. Ridge winds were W-SSW all day 20-50 gusting up to 60 km/h, and it was mostly blue skies with some cumulus clouds providing us with excellent viewing conditions. Patchy early morning inversion fog quickly dissipated.
Raptor Observations:
There was a fairly strong and diverse raptor movement of 151 birds of 10 species between 0830 and 1850 that comprised 4 Bald Eagles (3a, 1sa), 2 Northern Harriers (1 fem/juv, 1 juv), 14 Sharp-shinned Hawks (5a, 9u), 1a Cooper�s Hawk, 5 American Goshawks (4a, 1u), 1 adult Red-tailed Hawk, 1a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk, 118 Golden Eagles (45a, 10juv, 61 u, 2 non-adult), 2 distant Merlins and 1 Prairie Falcon that flew high right over our heads. The highest hourly count was 32 raptors between 1500 and 1600. No raptors were seen on the western ridges. Before noon most of the Golden Eagles were first seen over Skogan Peak before gliding straight over Mt Lorette towards the eastern ridges. Around noon a group of 4 Golden Eagles were seen soaring high over Hummingbird plume before gliding south very high over our heads straight down the valley, all subsequent eagles kept to the eastern ridges but fewer birds were initially seen over Lorette which made locating them a bit more difficult. From mid-afternoon it did seem like an increasing number of eagles were appearing over the eastern ridges having approached unseen from the north east.
Non-raptor Observations:
1 Common Merganser, 1 distant high-flying loon sp., 1 Northern Flicker, 7 American Crows, 19 Common Ravens, 2 Dark-eyed Juncos, 3 Black-capped Chickadees, 1 White crowned Sparrow, 1 juvenile Golden-crowned Sparrow, 4 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, at least 300 American Robins, 1 Northern Flicker, 7 American Pipits, 6 Pine siskins. A Northern Pygmy Owl gave us some nice views for the last hour, calling from a conifer just north of the site.
Report submitted by ()
Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
Count data submitted via Trektellen.org – [Project Details]
Mount Lorette (29 Sep 2026) 10 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 29, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 | 6 | 6 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 14 | 14 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 1 | 11 | 11 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Golden Eagle | 7 | 152 | 152 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Unknown Eagle | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Total: | 10 | 219 | 219 |
| Observation start time: | 07:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 10.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Caroline Lambert |
| Observers: | Allison Zukewich, Linda Hickey |
Visitors:
There were a number of people who walked by the site, including a tour group of 11 early in the day, but few stopped to chat.
Weather:
The change in weather previously predicted by the mare’s tails and sundog and dropping barometric pressure happened today. Clouds hanging over the mountains could be seen from some distance away on the drive in. The west ridge of the valley was partially or mostly obscured with clouds and mist all day. A blustery southwest wind blew raindrops from these clouds continuously in our direction throughout the day. We didn’t get wet, but the optics had to be covered after each use. The temperature stayed in a narrow range, starting at 8C, rising to 10C, and ending at 8C. A little blue sky was seen occasionally between the stratus and cumulus clouds. The east ridge stayed clear until the end of the day when McDougall started to disappear into the mist, and clouds descended on Lorette. Ground wind was constant in the range 5-15kph. Ridge winds were mostly from the southwest at around 40kph (much calmer than the hurricane force winds that were recorded on Nakiska during the night!), and the high wind appeared to be coming slowly from the west.
Raptor Observations:
Expectations were not high for seeing migrant raptors today, especially as the weather radar showed a wide band of rain and snow to the north of us. And not much was seen. The first migrant raptor was a Red-tailed Hawk at 1300. Only seven Golden Eagles were seen, 3a, 1sa, 1ui, 2u, the last at 1840. One juvenile Bald Eagle and an unidentified eagle that slipped past were the only other migrants seen.
Only three non-migrants were seen. A Merlin was seen hunting over the east ridge. Late in the afternoon we saw a Golden Eagle doing display dives over the right shoulder of Mt Lorette. We then noticed another Golden Eagle sitting below him on one of the lower ridges of the mountain. Was the first eagle one of the locals trying to defend his territory from an intruder, or showing off his moves to his mate? We’ll never know.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other birds were one Common Merganser on the river, two loons that were flying north, the Belted Kingfisher, a Downy Woodpecker, various Common Ravens, one Ruby-crowned Kinglet, nine American Robins, and one Pine Siskin was heard. At the parking lot in the morning a flock of eight California Gulls was heading south.
Report submitted by ()
Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
Count data submitted via Trektellen.org – [Project Details]
