October 17 [Day 52] Winds were W all day gusting 70-100 km/h until 1600 after which they moderated to 40-60 km/h, but in compensation the temperature rose from 3C to a very pleasant 8.5C. Cloud cover ranged from 50-90% with a mixture of cumulus, altocumulus, stratocumulus, lenticular and cirrus, and the southern end of the Livingstone Range was shrouded in cloud until 1230 with stratocumulus cloud “pouring” over the ridge from the west at an impressive speed. Despite the apparent occlusion of the mountains to the north, raptor migration began at 0809 with the first of the day’s 232 Golden Eagles going south; it paused briefly to make a half hearted stoop on an adult Northern Goshawk that was flying beneath it. Twenty more Golden Eagles followed by 0900 and movement continued strongly at yesterday’s rate until 1500 when the pace slackened with only 10 birds moving from 1700 to 1800 and the last bird, the 10th Sharp-shinned Hawk of the day, was seen at the early time of 1801. It is possible that the current Golden Eagle migration pulse is losing steam as the last 5 days has produced an impressive total of 1699 birds. The Golden Eagle that passed at 1644 was the 6000th migrant raptor of the season. This is the earliest we have reached that mark, one day earlier than last year’s count. Finches were again the only other birds migrating with 751 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches, 13 Pine Grosbeaks, 8 Red Crossbills, 63 White-winged Crossbills, 30 Common Redpolls and 1 Pine Siskin moving south. 11.67 hours (598.92) BAEA 1 (91), SSHA 10 (1353), NOGO 6 (132), RLHA 1 (30), GOEA 232 (3744), PRFA 1 (13) TOTAL 251 (6011)