Mount Lorette (31 Mar 2025) 85 Raptors
Alberta, Canada
| Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 31, 2025 | |||
| Species | Day’s Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bald Eagle | 17 | 56 | 56 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson’s Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Eagle | 61 | 938 | 938 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Gyrfalcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Unknown Buteo | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 1 | 7 | 7 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total: | 85 | 1014 | 1014 |
| Observation start time: | 08:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 19:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 11 hours |
| Official Counter | Lori Anderson |
| Observers: | Xavier Gorloo |
Visitors:
Only 4 people stopped by the site today.
Weather:
A beautiful morning greeted us with surreal low-lying bands of fog hugging the sides of all the mountains in the valley. The starting temperature was -3C, rising to 5C between 3- 5 pm and down to 1C at the end of the count. At around 1 pm the SW ground winds switched 90° abruptly and started coming from the north. Ridge winds were seemingly nonexistent until later in the day. A colossal motionless cotton candy cloud formed over Mt. Collembola and only disappeared when other cumulus clouds crowded around it. The cloud coverage averaged about 90% cirrus, cumulus, and altostratus and a few lenticular clouds later in the day.
Raptor Observations:
Our first migrant of the day came just before 10 am but it wasnât an Eagle. It was a juvenile dark morph Red-tailed Hawk flapping low over our heads on its way north. The eagles migrating early in the day had to work hard, flapping and gliding low in the face of Wasootch and over to Lorette where they disappeared low behind the Hummingbird plume. One eagle landed below Tonyâs peak for about ten minutes before it moved on. In the afternoon luckily some wind picked up and they were able to glide in high from the southeast and come into Mt. Lorette at the pyramid, where they crossed the face and dropped behind Hummingbird plume. A few small kettles also formed around Lorette where they found some uplift. We had quite a variety of migrants today, 61 Golden Eagles (34a, 4sa, 2j, 20u, 1ui), 17 Bald Eagles (8a, 5sa, 4j), 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Prairie Falcon, 1 Unknown Accipiter, 1 Unknown Buteo, 1 unknown Eagle.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other birds present in the area were, 1 Northern Shrike, 1 Pileated woodpecker, a small flock of Common Golden-eyes, 1 Belted Kingfisher, 1 American Goshawk, 1 Varied Thrush, 1 Black-capped Chickadee, 1 Northern Flicker, 2 American Dippers, 2 Canada Geese. 8+ Robins, many Ravens, 3 White-tailed Deer, and 1 Red Squirrel.
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Mount Lorette information may be found at: eaglewatch.ca
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
