Mount Lorette (28 Sep 2024) 55 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 28, 2024 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bald Eagle | 2 | 8 | 8 |
| Northern Harrier | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 9 | 18 | 18 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 3 | 8 | 8 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Eagle | 36 | 153 | 153 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Merlin | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| Total: | 55 | 207 | 207 |
| Observation start time: | 08:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 10 hours |
| Official Counter | Blake Weis |
| Observers: | Lynn Macintosh |
Visitors:
The beautiful weather and scenery brought lots of visitors to the meadow today. 80 people stopped to talk, including a group of at least 27, and 8 stayed for a while to look for migrants. Special thanks to Nancy & Christa who hung around long enough to catch the peak of migration and helped to spot some eagles, come back anytime!
Weather:
The temperature was 2C at the start of observation, it rose to a high of 14, then fell to 11 as we were leaving. Cloud cover was 25-50% cirrus, altocumulus and cumulus. Ground wind was light in the morning and gusting around 20 km/h in the afternoon, mostly from the N-NE, but occasionally from the NW. Until 1 PM the ridge wind was also light and varied from S, to SE, to NE. The ridge wind changed to SW and increased around 1 PM, reaching 50 km/h later in the afternoon.
Raptor Observations:
The day started off slow. There was a short bust of activity between 11:30 AM and 12:00 PM, but not much was moving in the morning or early afternoon. Then the change to SW wind seemed to produce an influx of migrants, culminating in an evening rush of 30 raptors between 4 and 6 PM. Almost all the movement was low on the west ridges or over the valley before 4 PM, between 4 and 5 migrants were gaining height and using both ridges, then after 5 they had fully transitioned the east. The last Golden Eagle landed high on the South Fisher Range near Mount McDougall just after 6 PM.
The total count for the day was 55 raptors including 36 Golden Eagles (10 adults, 6 sub-adults, 7 juveniles, 5 undifferentiated immature, 8 unaged), 2 Bald Eagles, 2 Northern Harriers, 9 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 3 Red-tailed Hawks, and 3 small unidentified raptors. Local raptors included one Golden Eagle flying north over Olympic Summit, and an American Goshawk hunting above the Nakiska Ski Area.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other birds included: 3 Common Mergansers, 1 Ruffed Grouse, 1 Belted Kingfisher, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 11 Northern Flickers (10 flew south past the site within about a minute, 1 was by itself), 3 Canada Jays, 1 Black-billed Magpie, 13 Common Ravens, 1 Black-capped Chickadee, 5 Mountain Chickadees, 1 Boreal Chickadee, 8 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 8 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 1 Brown Creeper, 1 American Dipper, 26 American Robins, 17 Pine Siskins, 7 Dark-Eyed Juncos, 5 White-crowned Sparrows, 1 Palm Warbler, 3 Yellow-rumped Warblers, and 1 Wilson’s Warbler. A Mourning Cloak butterfly and a Nearctic Bumble Bee were also seen.
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Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
