May 2 [Day 65] (Valley View site) The temperature rose to a welcome 14C from a low of -2C and most of the valley-bottom snow has now melted. There is still a lot higher up, but I am hopeful that we shall eventually get to the ridge before the end of the count! Ground winds were variable and generally light and only occasionally gusted up to18 km/h, while the upper winds were S moderate all day. The sky was essentially cloudless until 1400 when up to 90% cirrus cloud moved from the south giving welcome relief to very sore eyes. For the first time in a while we had some movement before noon with the first migrant, an Osprey, seen at 0945 and thereafter movement was slow but fairly steady until 1919 when the last bird, a Cooper’s Hawk, went north. For the first time this season we had a reasonable movement of Sharp-shinned Hawks (14, of which 8 were adults and 6 of unknown age), and all the migratory Red-tailed Hawks were dark morphs: 1 calurus juvenile, 2 harlani adults and 1 of unknown race and age. An adult Peregrine Falcon at 1624 was the 6th of the season equaling last year’s count total. No migratory eagles were seen, and one of the resident pair of Golden Eagles was only seen on a couple of occasions, each time low-intensity displaying, perhaps suggesting that nesting may have begun. A male Red-winged Blackbird flying north at 0756 was, surprisingly, the first record of the species on either spring or fall counts here, and a single Greater Sandhill Crane moving slowly and vocally north above the valley at 1325 was only the second spring record for the site and the first for May. 12.5 hours (721.2) OSPR 2 (13), SSHA 14 (56), COHA 2 (7), UA 1 (2), RTHA 4 (154), PEFA 1 (6) TOTAL 24 (3462)