Official Counter
Adam Richardson
Observers
None
Weather
-6 C with light pogonip falling as the morning fog drifted
over Camp Baker. The morning fog burned
off quick with a daytime high of 7C and mostly south winds 3-11kph. Later in the afternoon some cumulus clouds
formed off to the east and threatened precipitation increasing until
sunset. The barometer fell steadily.
Raptor Notes
(1) NG (1) LA (17) RT (1) UB (6) GE (1) UU
The flight started between 11:00-12:00 with 3 RTHA making
their way past the OP. It ended up being
a strong showing of RTHA for the remainder of the day averaging 3 an hour. By the end of the afternoon they were
literally shooting through the valley.
It is amazing to see them make quick work of the distance considering
how slow birds have moved through the area so far this season.
Accipiters continue to increase, but many of them are
distant and tracking a small raptor on a backdrop of forest miles away is
difficult. One exception was the
immature NOGO that came very close to the OP from somewhere to the east. The bird circled up the small forested knob
to the south of the OP. It didn’t climb
this ridge like the resident raptors do, but instead shot into the Smith River
Canyon.
Residents were active today just before the flight began to
pick up. I am generally getting more
familiarized with their coming and going from the new OP as I can see more of
where they originate from and seem to disappear towards. The small forested knob to the SW of the OP
is certainly a busy place for all species of resident raptor. I wish I knew what was going on up there (to
the west) as several times a day birds drop from Jumbo and other locations into
this vicinity. I have determined if they
don’t appear to the west of the OP, climbing the ridge, then they must not be
migrating. This seems to hold true as
the resident RTHA seem to frequent this area and will somehow reappear below
the OP only to work their way back up to the forested knob. I was worried later in the afternoon that the
same may hold true for a pass far to the SW which seems to lead into some
valley beyond the Dry Range. Fortunately,
I was able to watch several resident and migrant raptors disappear out of view
to the west only to come back east to enter the canyon. I feel pretty confident now that for the
birds I am able to see to the south of the OP, if they are migrating, they will
make it to the Smith River Canyon. I
have thought through many solutions to improving on the OP and one may be to
move one ridge yet to the south of where I currently am counting from. I have also thought of a couple vantage
points further south as well, as by this point the birds may be more filtered
onto one flight path and at the very least will definitely be obvious as
migrants as there isn’t a large population of residents to sort through.
Non-raptor Notes
The new OP was surrounded several times by mixed foraging
flocks of ORJU, WBNU, RBNU and MOCH.
This flock really livens up the afternoon with their chatter, especially
the WBNU who seem to be the most vocal.
The ORJU like to forage right out on the rock face of the bluff. Several flocks of SHCR came through.
89 antelope to the south west of the Johnston Ranch. The resident chipmunk came and peered at my
gear from behind a snowbank and RESQ are heard in the canyon to the west of the
OP.
Visitors
None
Next Day Forecast
Snow, then chance rain and snow. Patchy fog in the morning, otherwise mostly cloudy
with a high near 43F. NW winds
6-8mph. 40% chance of precipitation with
less than a half inch of snow accumulation.
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