March 26 Daily Flight Summary

Looking south up the Smith River with Jumbo Mountain in the distance

Official Counter         

Adam Richardson

Observers       

None

Weather         

-5C at 09:00 with mostly cloudy skies and no wind.  Temperatures warmed up fast hitting 7C at 11:30 and by 12:30 a mostly south wind kicked up 11kph diminishing by the close of the count.  Mostly high cirrus and stratus clouds which made for an excellent sky to track migrating raptors.  The barometer fell steadily throughout the count, the most since I have arrived.  By sunset the Smith River was still within its banks and Sheep Creek had finally begun to run.

looking up the Smith River with Sheep Creek flowing by this evening

Raptor Notes 

Slow day at Camp Baker for migrating raptors.  (1) NOHA (4) GOEA (3) BAEA (1) RTHA moved through slow and steady from 10:00-17:00.  4 of the migrants (the GOEA and RTHA) came through in the 16:00-17:00 hour which is the latest to date that there has been any kind of increase in detections.  The temperatures did stay warm with a high of 10 from 14:30-17:00 which is another first for this springs count.  Usually the temperature has already begun to fall fast.

Residents were busy today despite the decrease in migrants.  At one point one of the resident adult GOEA whom I suspect is nesting in the canyon to the NW of the OP, returned with some prey.  The new resident sub-adult BAEA appeared out of nowhere giving chase to the GOEA.  As if the GOEA didn’t have enough to contend with the resident adult light-morphed RTHA materialized and took a few swipes at the GOEA as it worked to gain elevation to the canyon it has been localizing in. 

In the afternoon the resident Jumbo GOEA got in a skirmish with 3 migrant GOEA that were working their way up the mountain.  This time it appeared the resident sub-adult GOEA was going after another sub-adult GOEA.  This migrant and two other GOEA moved far off to the east over Sheep Creek before coming back to the Smith River Road before proceeding north.

The numbers are starting to be uploaded bi-weekly to the Camp Baker HMANA site.  Check out the data here.

Non-raptor Notes

350 SNGO came through in one giant flock this afternoon.  81 CANG came through in several different flocks in high V’s.  That was a memorable sighting.  KILL was courting on the campground road to the south of the OP.  Black-billed Magpie were seen carrying nesting material into the willows that line the banks of the Smith River.  At sunset the first TRES arrived flitting down the river corridor.

13-23cm of snow persist in the campground

Visitors           

Some of the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks crew was out dealing with repairs on site.  The military did a fly over of the canyon in the afternoon and I noticed the closure is still ongoing as a result.  The restriction and closure notice now mentions that part of the river downstream of Camp Baker is covered in ice.  More may be read about the temporary closure here.  We are still in an active flood advisory through this evening.

the parking area has a lot of standing water in it

Next Day Forecast

Wednesday

A chance of rain and snow before 4pm, then a chance of rain. Cloudy, with a high near 38. Light and variable wind becoming north 5 to 7 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Wednesday Night

Rain and snow, becoming all snow after 10pm. Low around 20. Northeast wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.