Mount Lorette (29 Oct 2026) 46 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 29, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 | 42 | 52 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 6 | 10 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 55 | 83 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 10 | 22 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 12 | 24 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 16 | 19 |
| Golden Eagle | 45 | 1727 | 1993 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 5 | 7 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 5 | 8 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 14 | 18 |
| Total: | 46 | 1906 | 2272 |
| Observation start time: | 12:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 17:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 4.27 hours |
| Official Counter | Lynette MacCulloch |
| Observers: | Allison Zukewich |
Visitors:
Six people stopped to learn about what we were doing. One couple was visiting from Spain and were quite interested.
Weather:
Today’s count was delayed until 1:30 due to snowfall and heavy cloud in the morning. Upon arrival at the site, the sun was shining with clear blue sky down the middle of the valley and heavy clouds lining both west and east ridges and fairly heavy cloud in the southern sky, for 50 % cloud coverage.The temperature was minus 4 and climbed to minus 3 dropping back down to minus 4 by sunset. The ground winds were light from the north or north-east, ridge winds south , southwest also light about 24 km/hr. High winds were light from the south. The cloud coverage over the ridges and Mt Lorette, vacillated between 80 % to 60 % till 6pm when the ridges and total sky coverage was 100%. A few snowflakes were starting to fall as we were driving away. The sunshine was somewhat diminished by southern clouds but we were blessed with the snowy accents on the slabs and layers of mountain, making the rock features stand out.
Raptor Observations:
The very first Eagle flew directly above us flapping then gliding, fairly quick. From then on all the raptors were seen over Lorette or coming into Patrick with a few showing up at Patrick and one above the Bumps. the clouds on the ridges were quite heavy and then birds were swallowed up quickly never to be seen again, making aging difficult. 45 Golden Eagles were seen ( 16 a., 6 un imm., 23 ua) I adult Bald eagle was seen. Almost all of them were fairly low and flapping at least partially, only a couple caught a good stream of air and sailed quickly by.
A Sharp-shinned Hawk flew low over us like he was on a mission further upstream on the river.
Non-raptor Observations:
While observing migrating Eagles, we also saw about 200 Canada geese, several flocks of 50 or more ducks, one flock appeared to be Ringnecks. Three Snow buntings flew over, two Starlings, seven Robins, two pine Grosbeaks five Ravens came by. The Canada Jay could be heard but did not come to visit.
Predictions:
Possible more snow. Bundle up for the wind chill.
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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]
