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| looking SE towards Jumbo from the new OP |
Official Counter
Adam Richardson
Observers
None
Weather
Trace amount of snow overnight last night. It was snowing lightly at the beginning of
the count and this continued off and on until 11:30. High temperature of 7C
today at 14:30 with primarily N-NW winds 5-16kph gusting as high as 22kph
regularly. Low clouds during the
majority of the count made for excellent skies to spot raptor silhouettes
against. At the start of the count
visibility was limited to 2km on both the east and west sides of the OP, but by
the afternoon the clouds had lifted and begun to broke up which afforded long
views in either direction. It started to
snow lightly during the last hour of the count.
The temperatures at this new OP as well as winds may be markedly
different than where I had been counting from prior to today. I am about 250ft higher in elevation so the
wind is able to hit the bluff with more force.
I am also directly over the rock escarpment so the ambient temperatures
may be a little warmer than down along the Smith River which still is covered
in snow. As of today, 24cm of snow
persists in the campground with as little as 10cm or less where I have been
measuring from daily. The snow that had
fallen yesterday began to melt quite a bit and it had a lot of water content in
it as the entire campground has its roads covered in slushy snow and standing
water.
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| looking farther to the south up the Smith River corridor |
Raptor Notes
The new OP affords views that are frequently wing on with
migrating raptors both coming off of Jumbo and the hills far to the SW of the
OP. Now directly in front of the OP is a
small forested knob that I have seen raptors kettle off of. First two migrants of the day adult
light-morphed RTHA climbed effortlessly and headed N into the Smith River
Canyon. After this a steady trickle of
GOEA came through on a variety of flight lines with seven coming through in the
15:00-16:00 hour. I now need to look at
better topographic maps of the area to determine what is going on with the
birds that come off of Jumbo moving west to disappear behind this forested knob
never to return again above horizon. I
can tell these aren’t residents as I am able to look back at Jumbo and see the
residents, or the age of bird isn’t what I have noticed so far. A lone immature NOGO came through on a flight
path entirely of its own making, basically the reverse of the one male NOHA
that passed in the afternoon. Seeing
these birds take this flight path made me aware of how a near owl in the bluff
in front of me would definitely help with smaller forest raptor detections.
Residents were busy and they kept me busy by forcing me to acquaint
myself to their behavior from my new perspective on the bluff. BAEA S1 and adult birds stream out of the
canyon flying N to S more frequently. An
adult dark-morphed RTHA has set up a territory on Jumbo and takes swipes at all
raptors both resident and migrant. Adult
GOEA were copulating again today, but I believe this to be the other pair of
adults that nest in the canyon to the NW of the OP. These birds were seen in the top of a snag on
the far west side of the west bluff of the Smith River upstream of the OP.
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| looking north into the Smith River Canyon. Songster Butte in the distance. The near bluff on the left side of the photo is one place I see kettles of raptors forming off of and a resident GOEA pair frequently perch on the escarpment. |
It appears the new OP will be the location I will count from
for the remainder of this seasons count.
In general, it seemed like I didn’t have to scan as hard to detect
birds. It is still time consuming to
track migrants vs. residents as there may now be several species of raptors in
a kettle anywhere on the horizon and the vast majority of them may still be
resident. When a migrant comes through
from this vantage point it is quite obvious as I can almost feel the glide of a
migrant GOEA from miles away coming towards me as it is how migrants come
through the Bridger Mountains. I am very
fortunate that the family that owns the property I am now counting from made it
available to me on a temporary basis. It
may help me learn a lot more over these next few weeks.
Non-raptor Notes
NOPI have arrived to the Johnston Pasture. I also have a view of a temporary wetland
habitat that I didn’t before which allows me to scope the Smith River upstream
of the OP for waterbirds. The TOSO that
has been on territory since I have arrived came by the new OP to see what the
developments on the butte were. The
bluff amplifies its sweet song.
Visitors
None
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| some sun peaking through the clouds - looking past Jumbo up the Sheep Creek drainage |
Next Day Forecast
Saturday
Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 48.
South wind around 6 mph.
Saturday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 16. West wind around 5 mph
becoming light and variable.
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