October 2 [Day 39] The temperature reached 4C at 1400 from a low of -1C and was down to 1C at 1800. Winds were W all day initially 19-22 km/h and then steadily dropping all day to 10-12 km/h at 1800. Cloud cover thickened rapidly during the morning reaching 100% altostratus and cumulus at noon, and thickened and lowered throughout the afternoon as first flurries moved from the west, then rain and sleet after 1600 and finally heavy wet snow after 1810. All mountain ridges were obscured after 1600, but up to then there was some raptor movement involving 39 birds 30 of which were Golden Eagles (30: 15a,6sa,8j,1u) the first of which moved at 0811. The bird of the day was the season’s first Gyrfalcon at 1443, a juvenile female grey morph bird [bird species #89] that was 9 days earlier than it has previously been recorded at the site and 4 days earlier than its earliest occurrence at Mount Lorette. The last bird was an adult male columbarius Merlin at 1554 just before the first rain started. There was also a fairly varied non-raptor migration including 2 Downy Woodpeckers, 3 Northern Flickers, 6 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 7 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 11 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 2 Mountain Bluebirds, 7 Townsend’s Solitaires, 60 American Robins, 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler and 5 Dark-eyed Juncos. The weather forecast for the following 3 days is not encouraging so this might be the last movement for a while. 11 hours (481.63) SSHA 5 (900), RLHA 2 (8), GOEA 30 (675), MERL 1 (22), GYRF 1 (1) TOTAL 39 (2549)
Mount Lorette [Day 12] (George Halmazna) Temperatures ranged from -2C to 8C, ground winds were light except around noon when SE winds briefly reached 12 km/h and the sky was 100% overcast all day except for occasional brief breaks. Visibility progressively deteriorated throughout the day with rain in the valley falling as snow higher up, and all ridges were obscured by 1600. No migrant raptors were seen, but songbird migrants included 41 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 3 Varied Thrushes, 78 American Robins and 11 American Pipits. 11.5 hours (146.17) TOTAL 0 (501)