Visitors:
Only four people stopped to chat. One couple had intended to hike in the Ribbon Creek area, but that area is closed because of a prescribed burn taking place. We could occasionally smell a whiff of wood smoke, but otherwise the burn didn’t impact us.
Many thanks to Numiko Hiraki for helping us spot eagles for a few hours.

Weather:
The temperature stayed in a narrow, but comfortable, range all day – starting at 1C, rising all the way to 4C, and dropping to 2C at the end. The day started mostly cloudy, became even more cloudy by mid-afternoon, with some snowflakes drifting down, and then cleared up quite a bit by evening. The east ridge looked a little misty at times, but remained visible all day, while the higher peaks on the west side of the valley kept disappearing into the clouds. Ground winds were light to moderate. Ridge winds were very strong in the morning, gradually fading as the day went by.

Raptor Observations:
In the morning the eagles were making good use of the strong ridge winds, and were flying high and fast along the east ridge. Although the wind abated a bit over the course of the day, some of the eagles were still able to maintain height and speed, while some had to soar to gain height above ridge level. All the movement was on the east ridge. After an initial burst of 6 all at once in the morning, movement was a steady trickle of 3 to 6 eagles per hour all day, resulting in 43 Golden Eagles (42a, 1u) and 2 adult Bald Eagles.

Non-raptor Observations:
We were delighted to hear the drumming of woodpeckers in the area, and were lucky enough to see three of them. Non-raptor species were: Canada Goose 3, Ruffed Grouse 1, American Three-toed Woodpecker 1, Hairy Woodpecker 1, Pileated Woodpecker 1, Canada Jay 3, Black-billed Magpie 2, Common Raven 10, Black-capped Chickadee 2, Mountain Chickadee 1

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