Mount Lorette (13 Mar 2023) 11 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 13, 2023 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bald Eagle | 0 | 18 | 18 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Northern Goshawk | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Eagle | 10 | 45 | 45 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total: | 11 | 68 | 68 |
| Observation start time: | 07:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 19:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 11 hours |
| Official Counter | Lori Anderson |
| Observers: | Lynette MacCulloch |
Visitors:
23 curious people stopped by to ask what we were doing. Some experienced birders even offered to volunteer. Yay! Ed stopped by for an hour and helped out by talking to the visitors.
Weather:
The temperature started at -11C but rose quickly to -1C over two hours and finally reached a high of +3C by noon. Winds were fairly calm at the onset of the count but soon picked up and averaged between 10-15 km/h, gusting to 20 from the SSW. 60- 100% of the western ridges were affected all day by snow. The eastern ridges were clear until 13:00 after which they were slowly consumed by snow/rain clouds. Light drizzle fell for most of the afternoon and got much worse after 17:00. We ended the count a bit earlier than was planned. Ridge winds were very strong creating snow plumes.
Raptor Observations:
In spite of the inclement weather, 10 Golden Eagles (8a, 2u) found a way around to venture north. All were located gliding past Mt. Lorette and must have come from Wasootch because none could be located over the eastern ridges nor overhead. The first Goshawk of the season, an adult male, appeared at Mt McGillivray and was seen a few more times over the river and at Hummingbird plume. It may be one of our residents.
Non-raptor Observations:
A few of my personal observations: Today it feels like Spring is really on its way finally. It rained instead of snowed. A little moth flew by. Four ravens (3+1) danced around the valley all day in prenuptial courtship. A pair of ravens danced with careful synchronization and then landed to take a bath in the river together. A solo soggy starling withstood the rain from his perch, high in a leafless tree. The Wisakajacks dipped into my breakfast jar of overnight oatmeal to get the walnuts. Little tricksters! A hairy woodpecker pip squeaked while flying over my head and went on to drum holes into the pumphouse. A dipper did the dipper-dubstep on an icy shelf just upstream.
Hairy Woodpecker 1, Raven 8, European Starling 1, Mountain Chickadee 2, Canada Jay 2, American Dipper 1, Bohemian Waxwings 20, duck sp. 1 Red Squirrel 2
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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]
