March 8 [No observation] Today was the first day of Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) with the clocks advancing by one hour: subsequent reported times will be MDT. I spent 2 hours at the site from 0800 when the temperature was -17C with light snow (3 cm fresh) and the Piitaistakis Ridge just visible. By 1000 all was obscured and I left the site. There was a brief clearing in the late afternoon and I watched again from 1735 to 1815 after which the ridges again became partially obscured, but no raptors were seen. While driving to the site the second time, however, I saw a grey morph Gyrfalcon near Lee Lake, which is a species that has been very uncommon in southern Alberta this winter.
At Mount Lorette slightly better conditions had Cliff Hansen spending 8 hours at the site, but the only birds he saw were 1 Common Raven and 1 American Dipper. The day was more than justified, however, by the visit of a Canada Lynx to the site, the first seen this season.