March 31 [Day 43] (Valley View site) It was a fairly pleasant day with no precipitation and the ridges were clear all day. The temperature reached 4C from a low of -2.5C, ground winds were mainly W-SW gusting 20-35 km/h apart from the first and last 2 hours of the day when they were light, and ridge winds were moderate WNW all day. Cloud cover was 50-90% mainly cumulus and altocumulus, thickening late in the day to 100% altostratus and altocumulus, giving excellent viewing conditions. After two days of poor movement I was expecting a rush of raptors and after 17 birds had migrated between 0955 and 1055 it looked as if that was going to be the case. Subsequent movement, however, was relatively slow but steady and only one more hour, 1400-1500, saw double-figure passage with 11 birds recorded, and the last Golden Eagle went north at 1820. There was a reasonable variety of species, however, and the day’s 63 migrants comprised 4 Bald Eagles (2a,2j), 1 unaged Sharp-shinned Hawk, 2 adult Northern Goshawks, 8 adult Red-tailed Hawks (6 light calurus and 2 dark harlani), 46 Golden Eagles (33a,8sa,5j) and 2 Prairie Falcons, one of which was a juvenile bird. 12.33 hours (497.2) BAEA 4 (315), SSHA 1 (7), NOGO 2 (64), RTHA 8 (26), GOEA 46 (1839), PRFA 2 (11) TOTAL 63 (2299)

Mount Lorette [Day 31] (Alan Hingston, Ron Dutcher after 1330) The temperature was -9C at 0800 and slowly climbed reaching 3C at 1800, ground winds were light W-SW and ridge winds were moderate W until 1715 when they suddenly moved to N quickly bringing cloud that obscured the ridges for the only time during the day. Cloud cover otherwise was 30-90% altocumulus, altostratus and cumulus giving good observing conditions. A total of 26 migrants were recorded between the first Golden Eagle at 1218 and the day’s only Northern Goshawk at 1657, with 17 birds moving between 1218 and 1400. The flight comprised 2 adult Bald Eagles, 1 unaged Northern Goshawk and 23 Golden Eagles (19a,1j,3u). 10.25 hours (347.1) BAEA 2 (64), NOGO 1 (17), GOEA 23 (1051) TOTAL 26 (1160)

March summary We spent a site record 30 days (+9.1%) and 354.9 hours (+18%) in the field losing only one day to bad weather (March 9) and having a further day (March 29) where weather severely disrupted movement. Despite this effort the combined species total of 2149 was by far the lowest March count of the 3 conducted here and was 14.86% below the average of the last 2 years. The deficit was entirely the result of the low Golden Eagle count of 1783 which is 406 less than the previous lowest (2008) and 18.75% below the average of the last 2 years. By contrast, counts of most other species were above average: Bald Eagle 240 (+6.19%), Northern Harrier 2 (+300%), Sharp-shinned Hawk 6 (+50%), Northern Goshawk 57 (+9.6%), Red-tailed Hawk 26 (+30%), Rough-legged Hawk 17 (+88.9%) and Prairie Falcon 9 (+38.5%).