Mount Lorette and Beaver Mines, March 22
March 22 [Day 21] (Joel Duncan, assisted by Caroline Lambert) 0930-1945. It was a pleasant day with a starting and finishing temperature of 5C and a high at 1600 and 1700 of 8C. Ground winds were SW 4-20 gusting up to 40 km/h and ridge winds were strong SW all day. Cloud cover was initially 100% stratocumulus and altostratus that produced very light rain but which then changed to gradually diminishing cumulus and altostratus cloud that was 30% at the end of observation. The east was clear all day, but the west was 20% obscured until 1100 and 80% obscured after 1845. The first Golden Eagle was not seen until 1122 but there was then a fairly steady flow of eagles with a total of 82 moving to 1933. The count was 3 adult Bald Eagles and 79 Golden Eagles (50a, 3sa, 3j, 23u). Most of the birds moved high above the Fisher Range to Mount Lorette but between 1200 and 1400 , when 31 birds were counted, and again late in the day they moved very high overhead above the centre of the valley to Mount Lorette. Other birds seen included a single flock of 15 Canada Geese flying north above the Fisher Range, one unidentified gull and a Pileated Woodpecker. The media coverage of the RMERF 25th anniversary coverage continued to bring people to the site and today 26 visitors enjoyed the migration spectacle.
10.25 hours (219.2) BAEA 3 (103), GOEA 79 (1384) TOTAL 82 (1528)
Beaver Mines [Day 25] (Peter Sherrington, assisted by Hilary Atkinson) 0830-1830. The temperature at 0830 was 5C, rose to a high of 11C at 1300 and was 8C at the end of observation. Winds were strong W-WSW all day, 40-60 gusting to 80 km/h and cloud cover was 0-20% cumulus to 1800 when 50% cumulus and altocumulus developed. Movement was slow but steady to 1300, by which time 22 Golden Eagles had been counted, but it then became very slow and sporadic and the final count was only 27 birds: 1 adult Northern Goshawk, 1 light morph Rough-legged Hawk which was the last bird of the day at 1758, and 25 Golden Eagles (20a, 1j, 4u).
10 hours (201.8) NOGO 1 (33), RLHA 1 (41), GOEA 25 (762) TOTAL 27 (1029)
Steeples (Vance Mattson) No observation.
MOUNT LORETTE SUMMARY COUNT (March 1 to April 22)
DAYS 21
HOURS 219.2
TURKEY VULTURE (TUVU) 0
OSPREY (OSPR) 0
BALD EAGLE (BAEA) 103
NORTHERN HARRIER (NOHA) 0
SHARP-SHINNED HAWK (SSHA) 2
COOPER’S HAWK (COHA) 0
NORTHERN GOSHAWK (NOGO) 2
Accipiter sp. (UA) 0
BROAD-WINGED HAWK (BWHA) 0
SWAINSON’S HAWK (SWHA) 0
RED-TAILED HAWK (RTHA) 3
FERRUGINOUS HAWK (FEHA) 0
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (RLHA) 20
Buteo sp. (UB) 1
GOLDEN EAGLE (GOEA) 1384
Eagle sp. (UE) 9
AMERICAN KESTREL (AMKE) 0
MERLIN (MERL) 2
GYRFALCON (GYRF) 1
PEREGRINE FALCON (PEFA) 0
PRAIRIE FALCON (PRFA) 0
Falco sp. (UF) 1
Unidentified Raptor (UU) 0
TOTAL 1528
