Mount Lorette (24 Oct 2024) 182 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 24, 2024 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bald Eagle | 3 | 54 | 65 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 73 | 91 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 14 | 14 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 10 | 18 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 16 | 16 |
| Golden Eagle | 179 | 2161 | 2424 |
| 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 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 4 | 10 |
| Total: | 182 | 2354 | 2677 |
| Observation start time: | 07:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 9.62 hours |
| Official Counter | Caroline Lambert |
| Observers: | Rick Robb |
Visitors:
About 15 visitors stopped to chat, and two with binoculars stayed a short while and helped out.
Weather:
The temperature started out at 0C, rose to 4C, and was 2C at the end. Ground wind was mostly calm with occasional gusts up to 20kph. Ridge winds were in the 40-60kph range with gusts up to 77, from the SW. Upper winds appeared to be moderate from WNW. The clouds started out as a mixture of stratus and cumulus, with the south end of the valley completely obscured with apparent snow flurries and the west ridge partly in the clouds all day. The east ridge remained clear, and occasional snowflakes came our way until mid-afternoon. Although the east ridge was clear, there were clouds above it, and with the clouds to the south for much of the day, there was not much sunlight until those clouds broke up.
Raptor Observations:
Raptor movement started out strong with the first Golden Eagles spotted shortly after sunrise. The numbers built up until noon, after which there were 25-32 eagles per hour until 1600 MDT, when things began to slow down. All were spotted along the east ridge, some very high, some below ridge level. With the cloud backdrop, no sunlight until later in the day, and very little soaring, many of the eagles looked like black silhouettes and went unaged. The total was 179 (72a, 16sa, 1j, 11ui, 79u). In addition, three Bald Eagles were seen migrating, and two adults flew down the river that did not appear to be migrating.
Non-raptor Observations:
A swirling mass of 75-100 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches was a delight to observe early in the day. They spent spent some time on the other side of the meadow, but came to the river once for a quick drink. Seven loons, presumably all Common Loons, flew over early in the day. Other birds were: Hairy Woodpecker 1, Canada Jay 2, Common Raven 6, American Dipper 1
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Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
