Mount Lorette (10 Oct 2025) 215 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 10, 2025 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Bald Eagle | 9 | 32 | 36 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 50 | 152 | 182 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 8 | 12 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 9 | 15 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 5 | 18 | 40 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 3 | 7 | 7 |
| Golden Eagle | 148 | 1067 | 1209 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 8 | 13 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 5 | 11 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 4 | 10 |
| Total: | 215 | 1318 | 1563 |
| Observation start time: | 07:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 19:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 11.17 hours |
| Official Counter | Ethan Denton, Sarah Clarahan, Tiina Moore |
| Observers: |
Visitors:
We had a great number of visitors stop to help spot today, over 20 people between 12pm and 5pm. Another approximately 25 people walked by or stopped briefly to chat.
Weather:
A huge swing in temperature saw the day start at -2 and reach 19 above. Ridge winds stayed low and from the SW, as they have been for the last couple days. Air pressure dripped by 10 points throughout the day, as tomorrow’s storm grows ever closer.
Raptor Observations:
Today was good for Golden Eagles, with 148 (42a, 47s, 6j, 53u) passing over. In the early afternoon they struggled for height, usually coming from Baldy and popping out from behind Patrick before following the Fisher Range south. This changed later on when eagles started staging over Lorette and drifting higher over to the Eastern ridge in a more classic pattern. The final couple hours saw many eagles pass high and fast, nothing more than siloughetttes and consequently difficult to age.
It was another bumper day for Sharp-shinned Hawks with exactly 50 migrants – several accompanying eagles again, but a greater proportion were on their own than yesterday. One adult buzzed directly through the count site at about 8 feet off the ground.
Other migrants included 9 Bald Eagles, 5 Red-tailed Hawks, and 3 Rough-legged Hawks. The resident adult Golden was seen, but no other residents showed up today.
Non-raptor Observations:
A female Green-winged Teal foraged along the river for a short while, while the Kingfishers put on a show. Clark’s Nutcrackers continued to zip around overhead, and a Common Merganser flew quickly upstream in the afternoon.
Yesterday’s Common Yellowthroat was still around – hopefully he gets a move on soon!
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]
