May 10 [Day 73] (Valley View site) It was -2C at 0700 under cloudless skies, but the temperature rose to a high of 15.5C at 1800. Ground winds were generally light SW-W until 1800 after which they occasionally gusted to 23 km/h and ridge winds were mainly W light to moderate all day. After 1000 cumulus cloud began to develop and reached 80% at 1700 but subsequently thinned again to 20% at 1900. After 1000 observing conditions were excellent. It was again a good raptor movement for this late in the season with a total of 40 birds seen: the last 3 days have yielded 124 migrants. The first migrant was a juvenile Golden Eagle at 0836 but most movement occurred between 1306 and 1551 when 28 birds were recorded including 14 between 1500 and 1600. After 1600 things slowed down again and the last bird was a juvenile Golden Eagle at 1904. The 10 Red-tailed Hawks was the highest daily count since April 12 and included 7 juvenile birds and an adult dark-morph “Harlan’s Hawk”; the 12 Golden Eagles comprised 1 subadult and 11 juveniles and an adult light morph Broad-winged Hawk was only the second for the season. A single Vaux’s Swift flying low over me to the south at 1413 was the first record of the species at the count, and a female Western Tanager at 0820 was a first spring record for the site. A single very worn Satyr Comma at 1455 was just the 4th butterfly species recorded so far this season. Starting tomorrow we shall conduct the count from the Piitaistakis Ridge site as the access road to the parking area is now clear of snow and there are no longer thunderstorms in the forecast.13 hours (822.4) BAEA 4 (431), NOHA 2 (28), SSHA 9 (79), COHA 2 (15), BWHA 1 (2), RTHA 10 (186), GOEA 12 (2686) TOTAL 40 (3649)