Mount Lorette (06 Apr 2023) 43 Raptors

Visitors:
The first visitors, a group of eight hikers, showed up right before lunch. After that there was a constant buzz of people around the site for about five hours, totalling about 40 people. Four people came with binoculars and were immensely helpful with spotting some of our high-flying birds.

Weather:
The temperature started out at a pleasant -5C, rose to 5C for most of the afternoon, and had dropped to 2C on departure. There were varying degrees of cloud coverage during the day, ranging from 10% to 50% of a continually changing mixture of cumulus, altocumulus and cirrus. The cumulus clouds moved sedately from the northwest, but winds at ridge level, judging by the plumes of snow coming off the ridges all day, were from the southwest. Ground level winds were also from the southwest, mostly mild, but just strong enough at times to blow over a chair.

Raptor Observations:
Conditions were perfect for smart eagles that like to fly with little effort. There was a steady trickle of them gliding mostly very high and fast from Patrick to Lorette and beyond all day, starting at 08:30. There were 2-4 eagles each hour, except the last hour when there were 5. Apart from one stray Golden Eagle on the west ridge, all the action was between Patrick and Lorette.
The migrant totals were 38 Golden Eagles (23a, 2s, 13u), one Bald Eagle of indeterminate age, a light adult Red-tailed Hawk, an American Kestrel, one large falcon (possibly Peregrine), and one unidentified eagle.
One Golden Eagle was seen displaying rather inexpertly above Lorette early in the morning – flapping energetically to gain height and then doing rather shallow dives – and others were seen hunting a couple of times. One goshawk was seen hunting, and later in the day one was seen carrying prey. Red-tailed Hawks were also seen hunting on a couple of occasions.

Non-raptor Observations:
Non-raptor species were a little disappointing. The shrike put in a very brief appearance, as did the kingfisher. The only singing birds were juncos, robins, and Black-capped Chickadees. A Canada Goose called in the distance, but the Mountain Chickadees and a Red-breasted Nuthatch that were seen were silent. Several pairs of ravens sky-danced off and on all day long over and around Mt Lorette, generating comments like “Barrel roll – so not an eagle again”. (Another word for raven is “not-an-eagle”).

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Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
Count data submitted via Dunkadoo – [Project Details]