April 6 [Day 42] (Valley View site) The temperature was already 3C at 0700 and reached a season high 13C at 1500. Ground winds were very variable in the morning before settling down to W-SW gusting to 40 km/h in the afternoon, and ridge winds were W strong to moderate all day. A Chinook arch to the east dissipated after 1000 and 70-90% altostratus and cirrus cloud gradually diminished to 0% at 1800. Raptor movement was very sporadic between 0955 and 1825, with the exception of Bald Eagles with 23 birds moving between 1222 and 1809: the last 3 days have yielded 79 birds. Immature Bald Eagles are now occurring in numbers similar to adults with today’s flight comprising 12 adults, 6 subadults and 5 juveniles. Golden Eagle movement was disappointing with only 12 birds (4 adults, 5 subadults and 3 juveniles) seen, and of these 5 occurred between 1000 and 1100 and another 4 from 1700 to 1800. The resident Golden Eagles were again active displaying and at one time 3 adults were seen displaying simultaneously (albeit one was distant from the other two) suggesting that birds from adjacent home ranges may be vying for the same space. 12.5 hours (453.8) BAEA 23 (335), NOGO 2 (57), RTHA 1 (28), GOEA 12 (2356), MERL 1 (9), PRFA 2 (13), UU 1 (1) TOTAL 43 (2835)
Mount Lorette (Cliff Hansen and Joel Duncan) Joel had car problems so Cliff observed from 0930 and was relieved by Joel at 1200. The temperature ranged from 4C to 11C, cloud cover was around 20% Chinook arch to the east and cirrus all day, and ridge winds were strong SW all day. All raptor movement was confined to the period 1201 to 1330 and comprised 5 Golden Eagles and the first Merlin for the site this season. 10.75 (370.9) GOEA 5 (794), MERL 1 (1) TOTAL 6 (883)