November 6 [Day 71] (Vance Mattson) It was another cool day with the temperature briefly reaching a high of -4C from a low of -7C, and strong W winds initially 30-40 gusting 45 km/h increasing to 50-60g70 km/h after noon and reaching 60-70 gusting 85 km/h at 1700, creating problems with blowing snow all day. The sky was cloudless at first with 30% thin altostratus developing between 1100 and 1300 that thickened and increased to 100% by 1700. There was some early raptor movement with the first 2 Golden Eagles seen at 0735 and the day’s 3 adult Northern Goshawks all moved between 1000 and 1200 but a steady flow of birds only developed after 1200 when most of the 10 Bald and 33 Golden Eagles were seen. Most of the Golden Eagles are now adults with today’s total comprising 31 adults and 2 juveniles. The highlight of the non-raptor movement was a flock of 24 Trumpeter Swans flying overhead towards the SW at 0921. This was the 100th species for the season and the first time any swans had been seen on a fall count at the site, although we recorded both species here in the spring. Passerine migrants were 31 Bohemian Waxwings, 20 Pine Grosbeaks and 13 White-winged crossbills. 10.75 (809.81) BAEA 10 (291), NOGO 3 (233), SSHA 2 (1451), GOEA 33 (4930), UE 1 (12) TOTAL 49 (7723)

November 5 [Day 70] (Vance Mattson) It was a cool day with the temperature not rising above -3C from a low of -5C at 0700, and fell back to -5C at 1700. The wind was W all day initially 25-30 gusting 35 km/h, increasing to 40-45 gusting 50 km/h in the late morning and gusting 50-55 km/h after 1300. Low stratus cloud obscured the Livingstone Range to the north all day, but at 1430 the cloud partially cleared revealing the ridges to the S, W and E and cover was down to 50% at the end of the day. As might be imagined movement was slow with the first Golden Eagle moving at 0916, the second at 1130 and the third at 1356, but with partial clearing movement increased after 1430 with 8 more Golden Eagles seen before the end of the day. Vance’s persistence under challenging conditions was also rewarded by the 3rd Gyrfalcon of the season that flew directly overhead against a recently cleared patch of blue sky at 1501. It was an adult white morph bird! There was also some songbird movement including 35 Bohemian Waxwings, 9 Pine Grosbeaks, 14 Red Crossbills, 6 White-winged Crossbills, and 3 Common Redpolls. 10.75 hours (799.06) GOEA 11 (4897), GYRF 1 (3) TOTAL 12 (7674)

November 4 NO OBSERVATION At 0700 the peaks of the Livingstone Range to the north were still clear although a light snow had begun to fall, by 0800 all ridges and peaks were periodically obscured by low cloud and after 0900 they remained occluded for the rest of the day. This is only the third day lost to adverse weather this season.

November 3 [Day 69] My first visit to the ridge in over a week was a cool one with the temperature only ranging between -1C and 1C and WNW to W winds gusting 50-60 km/h all day. The initial cloud cover of 60-70% altostratus and altocumulus diminished to 20-30% cumulus and cirrus between 1000 and 1130 providing welcome sunshine, but then a Chinook arch quickly developed covering up to 90% of the sky which only drifted off to the east after 1600. Raptor movement started slowly with the first Golden Eagle at 0850 and only 5 birds by 0900, but then they obviously found conditions favourable and the next 4 hours produced 70 migrants and movement was persistent until the last Bald Eagle went south at 1638. For the 3rd day in a row this month Bald Eagles (19) moved fairly strongly with 8 of the birds seen between 1300 and 1400, but the biggest surprise was the Golden Eagle movement which in recent days appeared to be fading away, and the total of 71 birds (65 adults, 2 subadults, 4 juveniles) is the 3rd highest November count at the site. Passerine movement was sporadic throughout the day and comprised 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch, 1 American Robin, 55 Bohemian Waxwings (highest for the season), 50 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches, 57 Pine Grosbeaks, a single flock of 48 Red Crossbills, 34 White-winged Crossbills and 40 Common Redpolls. 11 hours (788.31) BAEA 19 (281), NOGO 1 (230), RLHA 3 (79), GOEA 71 (4886) TOTAL 94 (7662)

November 2 [Day 68] (Bill Wilson) [Note: change to Mountain Standard Time: all times hereafter are expressed in MST, previous times were MDT] It was yet another warm day (for November) with the temperature ranging from 4.5C to 8C with W winds all day gusting to 50 km/h in the afternoon and 90-100% altostratus, altocumulus and lenticular cloud forming a Chinook arch around midday. There were light rain showers just as night fell. The time change necessitated a very early start (Bill started climbing to the ridge at 0555) which was rewarded by the first Golden Eagle moving at 0747 followed 2 minutes later by the day’s only Rough-legged Hawk. Eight more birds were seen before 1000 and then nothing until after 1200 when the next 2 hours each produced 10 migrants with 13 birds moving after 1400, the last being 2 Bald Eagles at 1631 and a Golden Eagle at 1632. The 26 Bald Eagles counted equals the highest daily count to date, whereas the Golden Eagle counts continue to slowly diminish. Passerine movement was quite muted except for 43 Bohemian Waxwings which is the highest total so far this season. Other migrants were 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet, 19 Pine Grosbeaks (bringing the season’s total to1007), 4 White-winged Crossbills and 3 Pine Siskins. 11.17 hours BAEA 26 (262), NOGO 2 (229), RLHA 1 (76), GOEA 14 (4815) TOTAL 43 (7568)

November 1 [Day 67] (Bill Wilson) The unseasonably warm weather continued with the temperature reaching 11C from a low of 4C with W winds 20-30 gusting 40 km/h in the morning gradually diminishing in the afternoon to 5-10 km/h. Sky conditions were essentially cloudless until 1400 after which a mixture of altostratus, cirrus and cumulus cloud moved from the SW producing 70-100% cover for the rest of the day. The first Golden Eagle moved south at 0840 and migration was steady thereafter peaking between 1400 and 1800 when 8 raptors/hour moved. The last birds were 2 Bald Eagles at 1756, and there was also a late movement of Rough-legged Hawks with 4 of the day’s 5 birds moving after 1724. Bald Eagles moved strongly for the first time since October 25 with the 17 birds comprising 13 adults, 3 subadults and 1 juvenile and for the first time this season they outnumbered the 15 migrant Golden Eagles, 13 of which were adults and 2 juveniles. After a day off, Northern Goshawks continued their record setting progress with 5 more adults moving south and an adult Peregrine Falcon was the 34th of the season, just 1 behind last year’s record count. There was also a fairly varied passerine movement with 8 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 1 American Robin, 6 Bohemian Waxwings, 26 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches, 43 Pine Grosbeaks, 3 White-winged Crossbills, 3 Common Redpolls and 6 Pine Siskins moving south, and a Pileated Woodpecker flying to the west over the ridge was only the second record of the species this season. 11.17 hours (766.15) BAEA 17 (236), NOGO 5 (227), UA 1 (58), RLHA 5 (75), GOEA 15 (4801), PEFA 1 (34) TOTAL 44 (7525)

October 31 [Day 66] (Denise Cocciolone-Amatto) Denise decided to watch from the Valley View site located at the western base of the ridge. The temperature there (which is usually 3-4C warmer than the ridge top) ranged from 3C to 17C, and winds were light all day, not exceeding 8 km/h, while winds at ridge level were probably also light. Cloud cover was initially 20% altocumulus increasing to 100% altostratus at 1500 before thinning to 70% at 1800. The calm conditions meant that although the first migrant raptor, a Rough-legged Hawk, occurred at 0832 the second, an unidentified Buteo was not seen until 1248. After that there was slow but steady movement but the day’s total of 31 migrants was the lowest count since September 22 (apart from the weather interrupted day on October 4) and only 4 species of raptor were recorded including the 52nd “Harlan’s Hawk” of the season: the subspecies now accounts for 25% of the season’s total Red-tailed Hawk count. The comparative count at Mount Lorette wrapped up today after 30 days of uninterrupted counting, with the last 3 days producing 8, 8 and 11 Golden Eagles respectively. Cliff is presently auditing the data but reports that the total Golden Eagle count is just over 2000, compared to a count of 3999 over the same period (October 2-31) at Piitaistakis-South Livingstone. 10 hours (754.99) BAEA 3 (219), RTHA 1 (209), RLHA 1 (70), UB 1 (5), GOEA 22 (4786), UE 3 (11) TOTAL 31 (7481)

October summary For the first time we spent 31 days (353 hours) in the field at the site in October with only the count on October 4 being significantly curtailed because of adverse weather conditions. The days and hours are 8.8% and 9.7% above average respectively. The combined species count of 5141 is 4.15% above average and is the second highest for the month behind last year’s count of 5605. Only Northern Goshawk (140) set a new monthly high and was 42.1% above average, while Osprey (3, +100%), Broad winged Hawk (1, +100%) and Gyrfalcon (2, = average) equaled previous monthly high counts. Golden Eagles (4059) were 7.8% above average, Peregrine Falcons (7, +40%) and Prairie Falcons (9, +38.5%) were all above the average of the last two years, but all other species were below average. Bald Eagle (181, -33.7%) was probably low because the persistent warm weather has meant that northern water bodies remain largely unfrozen, so significant southward movement of the species has yet to commence. Northern Harrier (7, -17.6%) was only 2 below the highest count of 9 last year, and Sharp-shinned Hawk (516, -6.1%) , Cooper’s Hawk (44, -2.3%) and Red-tailed Hawk (57, -3.4%) were all just slightly below average. A single American Kestrel was only the 3rd to be recorded in the month, and the 15 Merlins were 23.1% below average and the lowest count ever for the month.