Mount Lorette (23 Mar 2026) 200 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 23, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bald Eagle | 12 | 52 | 52 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| American Goshawk | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 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 | 187 | 869 | 869 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Total: | 200 | 941 | 941 |
| Observation start time: | 06:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 19:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 12.48 hours |
| Official Counter | Lori Anderson |
| Observers: | Glenn Webber |
Visitors:
About 25 visitors came to the site, and a few helped with binoculars. A combined group of students from multiple schools stopped by for an educational visit about the eagles.
Weather:
The temperature at the start of the count was �6�C, rising to 6�C and falling to 4 at the day’s end. The sky was totally covered with low-lying cloud, and none of the ridges were visible until around 10:00. Wind came from the north until 12:30, when it changed to W and SW for the remainder of the day. It blew at 1-2 Beaufort in the morning and 3-4 in the afternoon with some very intense gusts. One unexpected gust at 16:25 nearly carried us into the river! The weather station at the Nakiska Ridgetop is still not working, but the snow plumes on the ridges indicated very strong westerly wind at that level. Cloud coverage averaged about 40% and included cumulus, stratocumulus, and by the end of the day was mainly cirrostratus.
Raptor Observations:
All but a handful of birds used the east ridges. At first, we located the majority of the birds at Mount Lorette. But as the day progressed, we discovered their flight path extremely high above the North Fisher range. Near the end of the day, they flew straight over Lorette without stopping to fly across the escarpment and onto McGillivray, as did most of the birds today. Aging was exceedingly difficult due to atmospheric humidity, distance of flight, backlight conditions, and flight style. Also, because of the high winds, many of the eagles glided with wings tucked in. The total number of raptors was: 187 golden Eagles (76 a, 2 sa, 1 j, 7 ui, 101 u), 12 Bald Eagles ( 7a, 4 sa, 1j), 1 American Goshawk. A resident Golden Eagle, American Goshawk and Bald Eagles were seen.
Non-raptor Observations:
The Northern Pygmy-owl sounded throughout the day, and the male Mountain Bluebird made an appearance before the Northern Shrike appeared. Other birds included 40 European Starlings, 3 American Robins, 3 Varied Thrush, 1 Northern Flicker, Pine Siskins, 1 Mountain Chickadee, Dark-eyed Juncos, Hairy Woodpecker, 1 Bohemian Waxwing, 12 Canada Geese, Ravens.
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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 Trektellen.org – [Project Details]
