October 24 [Day 59] The wind was W all day gusting to 50 km/h in the morning and then gradually increased to 40-50 gusting 90 km/h by late afternoon. The temperature was 0C until 1100 and reached a high of 6C at 1700, and there was a Chinook arch of altostratus cloud until late morning followed by diminishing amounts of cumulus and altostratus down to 10-30% after 1600. The day’s first bird was an adult male columbarius Merlin at 0844 but I had to wait until 1021 for the first of the day’s 53 Golden Eagles to appear. Movement was then sporadic for the rest of the day with birds generally moving high in the strong winds and after 1700 the birds were clearly being buffeted by the wind as they glided south: the last Bald Eagle was seen at 1806. For the first time this season Bald Eagles moved in decent numbers with 9 of the day’s 26 birds seen between 1600 and 1700. The only Red-tailed Hawk was a dark morph adult “Harlan’s” at 1542, and the season’s second Gyrfalcon, a juvenile grey morph, flew south at 1226. Because of the strong winds passerine movement was almost completely confined to the period before 1000, and only Pine Grosbeaks (100) and Bohemian Waxwings (38) occurred in numbers comparable to the last few days. Other migrants were 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 1 American Robin, 59 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches, 36 White-winged Crossbills and 7 Common Redpolls. A Snowshoe Hare near the site was in its white winter pelage and easy to see on the snow-less ridge. Raptor movement was relatively sparse at Lorette during the last three days under Chinook wind conditions. Alan Hingston recorded 22 Golden Eagles and 2 Bald eagles on October 22 and 14 Golden Eagles, 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk and 1 unidentified falcon on October 23, while today Cliff Hansen saw 18 Golden Eagles and no other migrant raptors.11.25 hours (679.59) BAEA 26 (160), SSHA 1 (1430), NOGO 4 (195), RTHA 1 (204), RLHA 4 (60), GOEA 53 (4409), MERL 1 (30), GYRF 1 (2) TOTAL 91 (6965)