October 17 [Day 52] (Valley View site) (Bill Wilson, which allowed me to make presentations at the Canmore Festival of Eagles today) It was a warm day with the temperature reaching 19C from a low of 9C, ridge winds were W moderate to strong all day and cloud cover ranged from 60-100% cumulus, cirrus and altostratus. The ridges were clear all day but light rain showers developed between 1640 and 1815. Raptor movement started early with the first Golden Eagle seen at 0744 and by 1300 171 Golden Eagles had moved south and the prospect of a significant total appeared to be in the offing. The flow slowed in the afternoon, however, with the last bird going south at 1817, but the final count of 269 Golden Eagles was still the second highest of the season so far, as was the combined species total of 293. The highest hourly count was 43 between 0900 and 1000, and the age structure of the Golden Eagle flight was 164 adults, 7 subadults, 39 juveniles, and 59 birds of undetermined age as many birds were flying very high above the Livingstone Ridge. There was a fair representation of other raptor species including the season’s 4th Gyrfalcon: a grey morph of undetermined age. 11.92 (617.8) BAEA 9 (95), SSHA 9 (936), COHA 2 (291), NOGO 1 (101), UA 1 (35), RLHA 1 (23), GOEA 269 (2303), GYRF 1 (4), UU 1 (11) TOTAL 294 (4334)
Mount Lorette [Day 25] (Ron Dutcher) Temperatures ranged from 4C to 14C, ground winds were light all day while ridge winds were SW moderate to strong, cloud cover varied between 100% to 50% stratocumulus and cumulus, and despite rain that fell up to 1100 and again between 1600 and 1700 the ridges were clear all day. Because of the rain the first raptor, the first of the day’s 34 Golden Eagles, did not appear until 1125 but thereafter movement was steady but sparse and generally very high above the Fisher Range until around 1725. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the passage of 4 Peregrine Falcons over a 1.5 hour period during the middle of the afternoon, which are the first to be seen from the site this season. 10.42 hours (296.51) SSHA 1 (45), GOEA 34 (1528), PEFA 4 (4), UF 1 (1) TOTAL 40 (1679)