Mount Lorette (12 Mar 2023) 8 Raptors

Visitors:
31 visitors stopped to talk. Two came to watch migration.

Weather:
2 AM on March 12 marks the change from MST to MDT in Alberta, so times noted in comments will be one hour ahead of times shown on Hawkcount which only shows MST.
In the morning it was a chilly -18C with a totally clear sky and almost no wind. The first clouds appeared around noon, then for the rest of the day cloud cover varied from 10% to 60%. Ground and ridge winds were from the SW. At ground level gusts reached 20 km/h in the afternoon, and at ridge level wind was light to moderate in the morning and moderate to strong in the afternoon. The temperature reached a high of 0C around noon.

Raptor Observations:
It was a slow day with 5 Golden Eagles (4a 1u), 2 adult Bald Eagles and one unidentified eagle migrating. Most of the Golden Eagles and the unidentified eagle were detected far to the north near Mt. Lorette, though one Golden Eagle was soaring relatively low along the west side of the valley. The Bald Eagles were seen soaring over Hummingbird Plume Hill. Migration was scattered throughout the afternoon without any notable peak.
Two resident Bald Eagles were flying low along the river, an adult and a sub-adult. A resident adult Golden Eagle was observed flying north to south over the Fisher Range.

Non-raptor Observations:
Common Merganser 3 Canada Jay 2 Common Raven 11 Black-capped Chickadee 4 Boreal Chickadee 6 Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 Pine Grosbeak 2 Red Crossbill 1 Pine Siskin 1
Red Squirrel 3

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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]