Mount Lorette (13 Oct 2023) 99 Raptors

Visitors:
About 10 people stopped to inquire about the count.

Weather:
The start of the count was delayed due to low clouds and fog, remnants of yesterday’s weather system. Apart from a couple of hours of sun in the morning, it was overcast all day, resulting in a narrow range of temperatures, from 3C at the start to 8C at the end, and a high of 9C. Ground winds were light from the northeast. The Nakiska ridgetop station was showing light ridge winds from the southwest, but the clouds, that draped over the east ridge occasionally, appeared to be moving slowly to the north. Neither ridge was completely clear of clouds at any time during the day.

Raptor Observations:
With low clouds and light winds, not much was expected in the way of migrating raptors. After three days of poor migration weather, it seemed at least some were determined to continue their journey south, regardless of the conditions. Most of the afternoon the eagles were flying low and using powered flight – with no sun there were no thermals, and the wind was light and in the wrong direction. The low altitude of flight necessitated constant monitoring of the vast expanse of sky between Lorette and Patrick, since when they got to Patrick, they disappeared into the cliff face and few of them were ever seen above ridge level. In the last couple of hours they managed to find enough lift to get above ridge level, but still needed to use powered flight to maintain their altitude. Those that were above ridge level were impossible to age as there was not much light, and they were flying against a white background. The total was 95 Golden Eagles (37a, 7sa, 5j, 4ui, 42u), 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk, and 3 small accipiters.

Non-raptor Observations:
A couple of hikers (or climbers) were seen at the north end of Patrick late in the morning. During the course of the afternoon they were seen progressing along the ridge – first on the right side of the Big Smile, then on the leftmost Bump, then along the right side of the Bumps, and then on Fisher South. They were not seen from the site after that.
As for other birds – the dipper is still missing! There were few ravens flying either – only one was seen flying above the ridge, which is an indication of how poor the flying conditions were. Other birds: Belted Kingfisher 1, Canada Jay 3, Black-billed Magpie 1, Common Raven 4, Black-capped Chickadee 2, Mountain Chickadee 1

Predictions:
Tomorrow’s wind forecast looks very favourable for migration, and Sunday looks even better.

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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]