Mount Lorette (14 Oct 2024) 44 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 14, 2024 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 | 39 | 50 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 68 | 86 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 9 | 9 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 9 | 17 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 9 | 9 |
| Golden Eagle | 42 | 1512 | 1775 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Merlin | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Unknown Falcon | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| Total: | 44 | 1671 | 1994 |
| Observation start time: | 06:30:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 11 hours |
| Official Counter | Lori Anderson |
| Observers: | Allison Zukewich, Caroline Lambert |
Visitors:
50+ A special thanks to Nathan Babichuk, Kelsey Buchanan, and Tina for coming to the site with binoculars to help us out.
Weather:
It actually felt like a summer morning with a starting temperature of 12°C. Oddly the temperature fell to 11° in the second hour. At 4 PM we reached a high of 19°C and at the end of the count it was it was 16°C. The wind blew from the SW for most of the day. At the crack of dawn, it was calm but the winds gradually rose all day from calm to 4 on the Beaufort scale. Ridge winds were SW from 36 km/h to 85 km/h. Ridges were clear all day and cloud coverage gradually diminished starting at 70% down to 10% at the end of the count. Clouds formed in varied configurations of lenticular, altocumulus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, and altostratus. A few small cumulus clouds formed at the end of the day. The air was not totally clear when aging the birds through the telescope. There was optical deformation, possibly due to the heat, which made focussing on distant raptors very difficult.
Raptor Observations:
After the amazing rush this week of over 1000 eagles in the past few days, we truly thought the momentum would continue today because the conditions were seemingly perfect. Unfortunately, it was not to be, and the day only yielded 42 Golden Eagles (21a, 2sa, 4j, 2ui, 13u), 1 adult Bald Eagle, and 1 small falcon. A resident Golden Eagle was spotted cruising westward over the valley and a local Bald Eagle flew north up the valley.
Non-raptor Observations:
American Dipper 1, Belted Kingfisher 1, Raven 20+, Dark-eyed Junco 1, Black-billed Magpie 1, European Starling 1, Canada Jay 3, Black-capped Chickadee 2, Boreal Chickadee 2. We observed a few pre-Halloween Raven Raves above Patrick and the North Fisher range.
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Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
