November 2 [Day 68] (Valley View site) The temperature rose to 4.5C from a low of -2C and fell to 1C by 1745, although with ground NW-NE winds gusting to 35 km/h it felt much colder. Ridge winds were mainly WNW becoming strong after 1300 and cloud cover rapidly increased from 5% to 70-90% altostratus, altocumulus and cirrus after 1000 which just as quickly reduced to 5-10% after 1600. A total of 88 migrant raptors of 7 species moved between 0852 and 1649 with Golden Eagles by far the commonest species with 73 birds comprising 61 adults, 3 subadults and 9 juveniles, followed by 10 Bald Eagles (6a,1sa,3j). A juvenile Northern Harrier and an adult Cooper’s Hawk were both second November records for the site and a Gyrfalcon (dark morph of undetermined age) was the 7th for the season. Unlike yesterday, movement was very sporadic with bursts of birds interspersed with relatively long periods of inactivity. 11 hours (794.04) BAEA 10 (314), NOHA 1 (97), COHA 1 (301), NOGO 1 (130), RLHA 1 (53), GOEA 73 (3875), GYRF 1 (7) TOTAL 88 (6308)
Mount Lorette [Day 40] (Cliff Hansen) The temperature reached 6C at 1300 from a low of -4C and had fallen to 3C by 1700, ground winds were S-SW 5-10 gusting 20 km/h and ridge winds were strong W all day. Cloud cover was 10% cirrus and altocumulus to 1300, then 60% cumulus to 1700 after which it reduced to 20%. A total of 9 migrant raptors moved between 0953 and 1620 of which 8 were adult Golden Eagles, 4 of which occurred between 1600 and 1620. The highlight of the day was a dark morph Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk at 1450. 10.16 hours (461.15) RTHA 1 (18), GOEA 8 (2243) TOTAL 9 (2490)