Mount Lorette (18 Mar 2025) 122 Raptors

Visitors:
A group of 25 school children and teachers came by. Other than them, only about 6 people stopped to rest and learn about the count. Thanks to Alan for spending nearly the whole day at the site and helping spot – it’s always a challenge when the eagles are flying on both ridges at the same time!

Weather:
The temperature started at -8C, rose all the way to +2C, and finished the day at 0C. For the first four hours clouds were draped low over the ridges and valley, and snow was gently falling. The sun kept breaking through the clouds all morning, giving hope for an improvement in conditions, but that didn’t happen until nearly noon. Gradually the clouds broke up and began to dissipate, and by late in the day there was only about 10% cloud cover. Apart from a few chilly gusts later in the day there was not much ground wind. Ridge winds appeared to be light until later in the day when finally snow was seen blowing off the ridges. Upper winds started out from the west and gradually swung around to the north.

Raptor Observations:
Shortly after the clouds lifted and the ridges could be seen, the eagles started moving. There was quite a bit of movement in the hour 1200-1300, with 31 Golden Eagles flying on both ridges. There did not seem much rhyme or reason to the flight patterns – some were low and needing to soar, some were high and just gliding along. After that initial burst of activity the numbers were relatively steady for the rest of the day, with the last Golden Eagle seen shortly after 1900. Initially the eagles seemed to be favouring the west ridge, but as the ridge winds picked up, the flight pattern settled down to gliding high over the east ridge. The final tally was 121 Golden Eagles (91a, 5sa, 25u) and one Bald Eagle (sa3).
One of the resident Golden Eagles flew from the east ridge over to the west ridge late in the afternoon, and shortly after that another one followed. A pair of adult Bald Eagles delighted us with some synchronized flying over the valley, coming quite close at times.

Non-raptor Observations:
As far as other birds were concerned, it was quiet. One Pileated Woodpecker was heard drumming, two Canada Jays passed by, several small flocks of what were probably European Starlings were seen heading north, a few Bohemian Waxwings were heard early on, and later in the day a Dark-eyed Junco made a brief appearance. At one point there were 11 Common Ravens together soaring over Nakiska, with a total of about 15 ravens seen altogether.

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Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
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