March 17 [Day 24] (Valley View site) Heavy snow and -4C greeted me at the site at 0735 but it quickly cleared, with W-WSW winds gusting to 30 km/h and the first Golden Eagle came through at 0846. With the cloud cover thinning to 60% cumulus and mainly sunny skies raptor movement became steady and included the year’s first Sharp-shinned Hawk soaring with a resident Golden Eagle at 1030. Movement peaked at 1200-1300 with passage of a Bald Eagle, 2 Northern Goshawks and 16 Golden Eagles and with the temperature reaching 2C and the Flathead Range to the west clearing for the first time in several days at 1400 prospects looked good. What proved to be the last Golden Eagle, however, went north at 1411and then snow moved quickly from the west and remained for the rest of the day, obscuring the ridges and completely shutting down movement. 10.67 hours (253.1) BAEA 2 (115), SSHA 1 (1), NOGO 2 (8), GOEA 52 (715) TOTAL 57 (847)
Mount Lorette (Alan Hingston) The temperature ranged from -10C to 2C, ridge winds were strong SW all day and cloud cover was generally 60-70% cumulus and stratocumulus interrupted once in the morning and three times in the afternoon by snow squalls of about 30 minutes duration that each time obscured the Fisher Range to the east. The mountains to the west were obscured all day. Golden Eagle movement was fairly steady with 11 of the day’s 28 birds occurring between 1300 and 1400, and 1 Bald Eagle completed the count. Single American Tree Sparrow and Northern Shrike were first occurrences at the site this season. 11.67 hours (158.8) BAEA 1 (12), GOEA 28 (164) TOTAL 29 (186)