March 18 Daily Flight Summary

the heat shimmer was bad - resident immature Bald Eagle along the Smith River

Official Counter         

Adam Richardson

Observers       

None

Weather         

-12.8C in camp at 08:30 with an inversion over the Smith River.  Up on Jumbo Mountain there was pogonip forming and everything was coated in hoar frost crystals.  30cm of snow still remains along the banks of the Smith River.  By 10:00 at the beginning of the count it had cleared off and temps had warmed to -12C.  Winds were light out of the north at 3.8kph switching to the south by late morning.  Bluebird day with not a cloud to report and excellent visibility.  Temperatures stayed below zero until 15:30 when the thermometer stubbornly peaked to 1C.  The barometric pressure fell steadily through the day.  At the end of the day winds had switched back to the north at 6.8kph.

Raptor Notes 

Slow day for migrants with an unknown GOEA far to the east flying the Smith River Road route.  An hour later the first TUVU of the year flew the exact same route.  I had to take two looks at this bird (one through the spotting scope) for me to believe what I saw in my binoculars.  Shortly after that an unknown light morphed RLHA came through only to later be removed and added to the resident inventory.

the resident Merlin returned

 

Residents were active much earlier today than they have been sense the beginning of this seasons count.  The Harlan’s RTHA was spotted again first thing up in the Johnston Pasture perched in the cottonwoods.  During the mornings migrant flight, I was lining up a distant GOEA in my spotting scope when I panned through a MERL in the top of the Ponderosa Pines directly east of the OP.  The small falcon was active in the area for nearly an hour.  An unknown light-morphed RLHA flew through on the Smith River Road route only to detour up far to the east past Sheep Creek.  Originally marked as a migrant it returned later in the afternoon and was quite active along the Smith River and Sheep Creek until late in the day.   An immature Bald Eagle came north down the river to the Johnston Pasture to perch in the cottonwoods.  This juvenile eagle was perched for 4 hours.  Most likely our resident adult GOEA were soaring up Sheep Creek far to the east most of the day.  The adult light-morphed RTHA was back flying far up in Sheep Creek as well with the other residents. 

Non-raptor Notes

24 Sandhill Crane flew north early in the count.  Common Goldeneye continue upstream in the Johnston Pasture.

Visitors           

None

Next Day Forecast

High 44 Low 20.

East winds 4mph.