November 19 [Day 84] (Vance Mattson) The ridges and mountains were completely obscured until mid afternoon when the Piitaistakis Ridge partially cleared but conditions still made raptor migration improbable. The temperature was -1C all day with the exception of 1200 when it dropped to -2C, and it was calm at the valley bottom. Freezing rain at 0730 gave way to wet snow until 0900 after which there was no further precipitation. Vance’s persistence was rewarded at 1445 when the year’s first Short-eared Owl (the season’s 101st species, only the second record for the study area and the first for November) appeared out of the gloom and hunted around the Valley View site before disappearing to the north. 9 hours (938.72) No migrant raptors (8059)