Mount Lorette (24 Oct 2025) 8 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 24, 2025 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Bald Eagle | 4 | 50 | 54 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 166 | 196 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 11 | 15 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 14 | 20 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 19 | 41 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 15 | 15 |
| Golden Eagle | 4 | 1879 | 2021 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 9 | 14 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 5 | 11 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 5 | 6 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 7 | 13 |
| Total: | 8 | 2186 | 2431 |
| Observation start time: | 08:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 17:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 9 hours |
| Official Counter | Graeme Dunlop |
| Observers: | Jim She, Sonya Pollock |
Visitors:
22 visitors stopped to ask about the eagles. 3 people helped scan the empty skies with binoculars.
Weather:
A sunny and quite warm day. The temperature at 0900 was 9C, the high at 1400 was 15C and it was 10C at 1800. Ground winds were SSW-SW all day, initially light but increasing to moderate by late morning. Ridge winds were S to SW, 66km/h to 110km/h all day apart from a brief lull late morning with gusts up to 135km/h. Cloud cover was 10% initially, increasing to 40% late morning before decreasing back to 10% by late afternoon. Mostly cirrus and cirrostratus with some small cumulus clouds. For about an hour in the early afternoon two long rotor clouds streamed out from the ridges near Mt Allan like a pair of giant snow-plumes indicating just how turbulent the atmospheric conditions were. Observing conditions were good to excellent throughout.
Raptor Observations:
The days count was 4 unaged Golden Eagles and 4 adult Bald Eagles. The severe crosswinds/headwinds likely made conditions too unfavourable even for eagles. The first Golden Eagle was seen just after 1400 gliding high over the Fisher Range, yawing like a Turkey Vulture and being blown around like a leaf, something I have never seen an eagle do before! The last 3 Golden Eagles appeared just before 1700, also high over the Fisher Range.
Non-raptor Observations:
The skies were generally quiet but there was a few passerines flying in the morning. Unfortunately most were too distant for me to confidently identify. 1 American Robin, 14 Common Ravens, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet, 1 Mountain Chickadee, 4 Clark’s Nutcrackers, 2 White-crowned Sparrows and 1 gull sp.
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Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
