October 28 [Day 63] (Valley View and North Burmis sites) There was a further 10 cm of fresh snow on the ground and -3C, but the Livingstone Ridge was almost clear at 0745 and prospects for movement appeared good. At 0840, however, snow began that became heavy after 0910 and by the time it had stopped a further 5 cm had accumulated. Both ground and ridge winds were light all day from the W and the Livingstone Ridge was not fully clear of cloud until after 1545. Cloud cover was mainly 100% stratus all day and the temperature briefly rose to 2C at 1400, falling back to -3C by 1845. Because of the light winds and low cloud cover I asked Dawn, and later Phil, to watch from the eastern side of the ridge where between 1322 and 1606 they counted 37 migrant raptors, 35 of which occurred before 1522. As the Livingstone Range cleared raptors started moving strongly along the ridge visible from the west and after 1522 only 2 more birds were seen from the North Burmis (eastern site). A total of 62 birds was recorded from the Valley View site and the day’s combined total was 99. The first migrant was the season’s 96th Northern Harrier seen from the Valley View site at 1306, and birds moved until the last 3 of the day’s 20 Bald Eagles (15a,2sa,3j) went south at 1810. The total of 69 Golden Eagles comprised 45 adults, 12 subadults, 6 juveniles and 6 birds of unknown age. 11 hours BAEA 20 (247), NOHA 1 (96), RLHA 5 (48), UB 2 (7), GOEA 69 (3525), UE 2 (4) TOTAL 99 (5968)
Mount Lorette [Day 36] (Peter Allen) Because of illness Peter did not arrive at the site until 1430 when the temperature was -2C which then gradually dropped to -4C by 1850. Ground winds were variable and ridge winds SW but both were light, and cloud cover was initially 70% stratocumulus becoming 100 stratus after 1500, but the Fisher Range remained clear all day. The only migrant raptor seen was an adult Bald Eagle at 1732. 4.33 hours (409.16) BAEA 1 (83) TOTAL 1 (2368)