Mount Lorette (06 Oct 2025) 329 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 06, 2025 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Bald Eagle | 3 | 15 | 19 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 6 | 18 | 48 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 1 | 5 | 9 |
| American Goshawk | 1 | 5 | 11 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 8 | 30 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Eagle | 315 | 622 | 764 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 2 | 5 | 10 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Unknown Raptor | 1 | 4 | 10 |
| Total: | 329 | 691 | 936 |
| Observation start time: | 07:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 19:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 11.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Dan Parliament |
| Observers: | Neil Denton, Tiina Moore |
Visitors:
There were 25 visitors. Several of the visitors remained at the site to assist with counting and identification. Special thanks to George Halmazna for the early morning assistance. The observers were delighted with the young children visitors who asked many questions, and donned binoculars to assist with the observation.
Weather:
The opening temperature was -2 C and increasing to 11 C during the mid afternoon. The ground winds were from the SW at 1-5 km/hr increasing to 6-10 km/hr later in the afternoon. The ridge winds were assessed to be from the North at “Medium” (11-40 km/hr). The Northerly ridge winds likely assisted in the migration, as the raptors came across the valley from Mt Lorette, and entered low on the face of “Patrick”, and with much soaring and circling gained elevation above the ridges to glide across to the “Bumps”. The high winds were from the SW or WSW and generally less than 40 km/hr.
Raptor Observations:
The total raptor flight was 329 birds and was comprised of 315 Golden Eagles, 3 Bald Eagles, 6 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Cooper’s Hawk, 1 American Goshawk, 2 Merlin and 1 unidentified raptor. The Golden Eagle flight of 315 was comprised of 182 adults, 51 juveniles, and 82 unaged birds. Fifty-two of the unaged Golden Eagles were identified in the last 30 minutes of the count when the volume of migrants and the poor lighting before sunset resulted in much silhouetting of the migrants. The final 75 minutes of the observation period resulted in a count of 107 Golden Eagles.
Non-raptor Observations:
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]
