August 25 [Day 1] It was a windy day for the start of the season with winds from the west all day gusting to 55 km/h. The temperature at 0800 was 12C and rose to 15.5C at noon, but gradually fell throughout the afternoon to 9C at 1800. Cloud cover steady increased from 30% to 100% bringing a few light showers in mid-afternoon. Only two migrant raptors were recorded: an adult light morph Ferruginous Hawk at 1250 and 7 minutes later a juvenile Golden Eagle gliding high to the south along the ridge, the earliest yet recorded on an RMERF fall count. The only resident birds seen were a probable family group of Red-tailed Hawks and the resident pair of adult Golden Eagles with the male occasionally seen displaying. During ten visits to the site during the summer I only saw the pair once and there was no sign that they had fledged any young this year. There was a fairly good early season passerine movement in the morning including 16 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 1 Mountain Bluebird, 1 Orange-crowned Warbler, 17 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 4 Wilson’s Warblers, 8 Dark-eyed [Oregon] Juncos, 1 Red Crossbill, 2 White-winged Crossbills and 35 Pine Siskins. After 1300, however, I saw hardly any birds and the highlight of the afternoon was a herd of 60 Elk at the base of the ridge immediately east of the site. 11 hours (11.0) FEHA 1, GOEA 1 TOTAL 2 (2)