October 30 [Day 65] (Vance Mattson) It was not a good start to the day. When Vance arrived at the site at first light shortly after 0800 he found that all our optical and meteorological equipment, with a value of around $6000, had been stolen overnight. He had to descend the ridge again to phone me and to report the theft to the RCMP, and the climbed back up again to resume the count at 0930 using binoculars only. Fortunately the weather was ideal for observation with thin altostratus cloud between 30 and 90% after 1100, with the wind increasing from calm up to noon to W up to 35 km/h in the afternoon, and it was again warm. The birds mainly moved close to the ridge and ages were assigned to all but 2 of the day’s 50 migrants. The early morning calm conditions suggested that few birds were missed when Vance was away from the site as he didn’t see the first bird of the day, a Golden Eagle, until 1039. Forty-five birds moved after 1200 with the last being the day’s only Rough-legged Hawk at 17565. The Golden Eagle total of 28 was the lowest since October 11, but by way of compensation 8 species of migratory raptor were seen including the latest ever Peregrine Falcon at the site (an adult) by 10 days. Both the Red-tailed Hawks were adults: 1 calurus intermediate morph and 1 dark harlani. The 0930 start meant that much of the passerine movement was missed, but 2 American Robins, 101 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches, 96 Pine Grosbeaks, 11 Red Crossbills, 9 White-winged Crossbills and 25 Common Redpolls were seen, and 34 migrant Canada Geese was the highest daily count so far this season. 9.5 hours (944.99) BAEA 10 (216), SSHA 4 (1449), NOGO 3 (222), RTHA 2 (208), RLHA 1 (69), GOEA 28 (4764), PEFA 1 (33), PRFA 1 (17) TOTAL 50 (7450)