September 23 [Day 30] It was another hot day with the temperature 15C at 0800 rising to 23.5C by late afternoon and still at 21C at 1900. Winds were initially NW-N gusting 30 km/h until 1315 when they switched to W gusting to 40 km/h and over 50 km/h after 1900. The sky was completely cloudless all day, but smoke drifted from the W starting at 1600 reaching 30% at 1700 before gradually dissipating, which gave considerable relief to the eyes of Doug, Teresa, Keith and myself who had spent most of the day searching the blue for high flying migrants. It was another solid day of raptor movement with 114 migrants of 13 species moving between 0917 and 1850 with 96 of the birds occurring between 1300 and 1800. Sharp-shinned Hawks (55) were yet again the commonest raptor, with 16 Cooper’s Hawks taking the species’ total over 200 for the season. Golden Eagles again moved steadily but in relatively low numbers with 22 birds comprising 6 adults, 8 subadults and 8 juveniles. The biggest surprise was the passage of 2 adult Ferruginous Hawks one being a normal light morph but the other at 1420 showed a combination of a typical light morph tail, body and head, but with black (with some white mottling) under-wing coverts: a beautiful but bizarre bird!. Non-raptor migration was strong and persisted until the westerlies kicked in. Birds moving comprised 1 Hairy Woodpecker, 3 Blue Jays, 150 Red-breasted Nuthatches (a seasonal high), 9 Golden-crowned and 52 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 10 Mountain Bluebirds, 3 Townsend’s Solitaires, 16 American Robins, 1 American Pipit, 30 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 2 White-crowned Sparrows, 5 Dark-eyed Juncos, 1 Cassin’s Finch and 61 Pine Siskins. A Northern Pygmy-Owl being mobbed by the 3 Blue Jays and a variety of chickadees, kinglets and bluebirds was the first record of the season [bird species # 85]. The hot weather had a few butterflies on the wing including a Long-Dash Skipper and a couple of Dark Wood Nymphs, both considerably later than their normal flight periods. 12.5 hours (374.51) OSPR 1 (34), BAEA 1 (18), NOHA 4 (69), SSHA 55 (669), COHA 16 (204), NOGO 3 (57), UA 3 (22), RTHA 2 (120), FEHA 2 (10), GOEA 22 (208), AMKE 1 (36), PEFA 2 (26), PRFA 1 (8) TOTAL 114 (1547)
Mount Lorette [Day 4] (Jim Davis) The temperature ranged from 3C to 25C, initially calm conditions gave way after 1030 to W-SW winds 10-15 gusting 25 km/h and cloudless skies were relieved between 1500 and 1800 by smoke from a controlled burn immediately to the W, but which also produced falling ash and resulted in stinging eyes. Raptor migration comprised 18 birds of 4 species between the first of the day’s 9 Golden Eagles at 1120 and the last 2 of 6 Sharp-shinned Hawks at 1638. Unusual was the passage of a single male American Goldfinch which is a rarity at any time at the site, and a flock of 40 Common Redpolls that flew low overhead was very early. Four species of warbler occurred: 10 Yellow-rumps, 5 Townsend’s, 1 MacGillivray’s (a female), and 2 Common Yellowthroats. 12.25 hours (49.92) BAEA 2 (3), SSHA 6 (11), RTHA 1 (4), GOEA 9 (81) TOTAL 18 (112)