September 6 [Day 12] The barometric pressure had risen 4 hPa overnight so it
appeared that the weather was finally going to improve. The Livingstone Range to the
north, however, did not clear until the afternoon and cloud cover was 100%
stratocumulus for most of the day with the cloud periodically descending to envelope
the ridge in the morning. Winds were light all day and never exceeded 8 km/h, and
the temperature ranged from 3C to 8C, with periodic rain and hail showers the last
of which at 1715 turned into steady rain. The conditions were not conducive to
raptor movement and only 9 migrants of 6 species were seen spread thinly between
0851 and 1718. Surprisingly, however, there was a good songbird movement that
persisted until around 1030 with many birds disappearing into the low cloud or
proving to be impossible to identify against the dark grey backdrop. New species
recorded for this season were Canada Goose (heard flying west within the cloud),
Blue Jay (4 of which appeared out of the cloud, flying south), Common Yellowthroat
and Winter Wren (both second records for the site) and a Clay-coloured Sparrow in a
flock of 10 Chipping Sparrows. A male American Redstart was the first to be seen on
the ridge itself and was the second for the study area (the first was seen 3 days
ago). During a spectacularly barren mid-afternoon period a female Western Tanager
flew south to the east of the ridge to furnish a first record for the site, the
145th bird species recorded so far. Other migrants included 25 Red-breasted
Nuthatches, 8 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 4 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 3 Mountain
Bluebirds, 10 Townsend's Solitaires, 56 American Robins, 1 American Pipit, 1
Orange-crowned Warbler, 23 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 1 Townsend's Warbler, 47 Wilson's
Warblers, 1 Savannah Sparrow, 2 White-crowned Sparrows, 18 Dark-eyed Juncos, 1
Cassin's Finch, 10 Red Crossbills, 22 White-winged Crossbills, and 128 Pine Siskins.
10.67 hours (127.17) NOHA 1 (8), SSHA 3 (68), COHA 2 (13), NOGO 1 (2), RTHA 1 (6),
MERL 1 (2) TOTAL 9 (127)