March 11 Daily Flight Summary

Official Counter         

Adam Richardson

Observers       

N/A

Weather         

-21 C at camp this morning and the 3-degree difference was welcome.  30 cm of snow today along the river bank. 7kph winds were from the north briefly at the start of the count at 12:00.  By 12:30 they had switched to blowing from the south a 10.7kph and the winds remained from the south for the remainder of the count.  Visibility was again excellent today with only light cirrus clouds to the north and low on the horizon.  The temps finally went positive around 14:30 and climbed to a daytime high of 4C.  The barometric pressure fell slightly through the day.

Raptor Notes 

At 11:08 when I first arrived at Camp Baker one of the resident adult GOEA was flying north only to perch on the east side of the entrance of the Smith River Canyon.  An hour later during the noon hour a kettle of 5 unknown eagles moved by far to the east.  These birds weren’t going very high, but they were beyond the limit of identification to species.  This kettle and one other distant migrating eagle were spotted out to the east which would be Rocky Ridge and Elkhorn Pass vicinity a distance of some 8 km.  An adult light-morphed RTHA cruised north low over the river to investigate some elk I had not noticed near Berkins Butte.  This bird made no haste and spent 10 minutes soaring in this vicinity before entering the canyon slightly.  After this the bird made its way back south and out of view eventually on the east rim of the canyon.    What I believe to be a resident pair of adult GOEA spent most of the day cruising Jumbo Ridge.  At 16:17 a skirmish may have ensued when one of the GOEA dropped to the base of Jumbo Ridge where an undetected adult BAEA was possibly lingering too long.  This BAEA eventually flew back north low along the Smith River and the GOEA remained on Jumbo Ridge for the remainder of the count.  An unknown buteo was seen only once soaring on Jumbo Ridge, but I am hoping that is the RTHA I saw earlier in the day and that I didn’t make a bad call noting it as a resident earlier.  At the close of the count today the resident GOEA were still soaring over Jumbo Ridge.

Today’s count was situated at a new location behind the ranger housing.  It did help me spot the distant kettle today which attributed for the increase in detections.  It allows a view of the distant eastern horizon and a clear view to the south up the Smith River.  As a result, todays windspeeds overall were probably a little higher than yesterdays and the temperature was probably a little warmer as well.

Non-raptor Notes

Shortly after the first GOEA siting a lone Bufflehead. was seen flying south high above the Smith River.  A CLNU came to the eastern canyon rim and was identified instantly amongst the constant chattering of the resident Black-billed Magpie.

Visitors           

None

Next Day Forecast

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