Mount Lorette (20 Oct 2022) 72 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 20, 2022 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Bald Eagle | 0 | 57 | 70 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 17 | 46 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 12 | 23 |
| Northern Goshawk | 0 | 18 | 25 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 22 | 31 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| Golden Eagle | 72 | 1539 | 1694 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 11 | 13 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 8 | 14 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 9 | 10 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 14 | 18 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| Total: | 72 | 1731 | 1982 |
| Observation start time: | 06:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 10.75 hours |
| Official Counter | Caroline Lambert |
| Observers: | Mustafa Onder Ersin |
Visitors:
In spite of the cool and blustery weather, 21 visitors came by the site and learned about the day’s count.
Weather:
Finally, a change in the weather, and it was a bit of a shock. Ground winds were from the northeast and quite strong. Clouds covered most of the sky, and while the temperature stayed in a narrow range of 8-10C, the high humidity, lack of sun, and wind made it feel much colder. There were some raindrops in the early afternoon, but not enough to make the ground wet. Ridge winds were strong and from a migration-favourable WSW or SW direction all day.
Raptor Observations:
There was hope for a good number of migrant eagles today, with the strong ridge winds and the count to date well below average for the season. However, the total of 72 Golden Eagles (17a, 5sa, 1j, 49u), was about normal for this time of the season. Looking at the weather radar map, we noticed snow and rain north of Banff, and we wondered if that affected the numbers we saw. With the wind, the eagles were able to fly very high and fast over the east ridge. Only a few did any soaring. The clouds made it easy to spot the eagles, but the lack of sunlight, the dark clouds, the ground wind shaking the scope, and the speed of the eagles (wings pulled in and tails folded) made it extremely difficult to age them.
The only migrant raptors were Golden Eagles. Early in the day an adult Bald Eagle was seen hunting over the river north of the count site, and a Red-tailed Hawk was seen chasing some ducks down the river.
Non-raptor Observations:
While the only migrant raptors seen were eagles, there were some non-raptor species that decided this was a good time to fly south. Four loons (presumably Common Loons) were seen flying high, and several groups of Canada Geese totalling about 40. One lone Snow Goose was flying with one group of Canada Geese. Other birds were 3 American Wigeons, 2 Common Mergansers, 2 Canada Jays, 6 Common Ravens, 2 Black-capped Chickadees, 3 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 2 American Robins, about 40 Red Crossbills, about 20 Pine Siskins, and the American Dipper.
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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]
