April 1 Daily Flight Summary

Official Counter         

Adam Richardson

Observers       

None

Weather         

0C at 09:00.  The temperature fluctuated throughout the day with the approaching snowstorm.  A high of 5C at 10:30 was followed by rapid cooling to 2C by 12:30 as heavy snow sifted through the valley from north to south.  The storm broke by 13:00 and the clouds rapidly dissipated as the temperature climbed to 8C.  Visibility was good even though it was mostly cloudy for most of the days count.  The ceiling for this storm was quite high so it was possible to see in one direction or another when heavy snow obscured the horizon from time to time.  It was fairly breezy today with winds primarily out of the north 6-16kph gusting to 23kph at times.

Raptor Notes 

(3) GE came through today one at 10:00 and 2 at 14:00.  Compared to yesterday’s warm weather and south winds todays weather was not ideal for northbound migrants flying north towards the Smith River Canyon.

Residents were active despite the storm.  The birds appeared far off to the west over some hills to ths south of the Dry Range.  It is hard to quantify what is going on over here as these birds are at the limit of my spotting scope.  I am able to discern they are raptors in a kettle of 3-5 birds, but which direction they are headed is hard to tell from the OP.  Our resident birds definitely mix in these kettles making things more difficult.  Yesterday it seemed all day that the birds that were in this vicinity eventually made their way back to the OP if they were truly migrating through the Smith River Canyon.  That wasn’t the case for today’s flight.  Birds that appeared over hear seemed to evaporate into the clouds and snow.  Our resident birds fly into this area frequently and it seems pretty obvious they are our residents due to their age, timing and generally east to west direction vs. south to north.  Residents frequently appear thermal-ling above the forested knob to the south of the OP and slowly climb the ridge to the west without making any northward progression.  Migrants come over this ridge, but this late into the spring flight are pretty determined to continue north into the canyon.  They are usually folded up and shooting through not soaring up a ridge and peering back south frequently.

Non-raptor Notes

BBMA riding on a deer rump

66 TUSW flew through on a NE flightpath that many long-distance migrating waterfowl seem to prefer.  Their gleaming white silhouettes in the falling snow over the surrounding hills was stunning to say the least.  SACR were migrating through as well but in much smaller numbers.  At the end of the count I observed a BBMA perching on a deer.  Do BBMA eat insects attracted to the deer?  It almost looked like the magpie was eating something off of the rear end of the deer.  I was able to photograph it, so if anyone following along at the blog knows what this behavior is all about please email or feel free to comment.

Visitors            

Colin Maas and Nate Kluz flew the canyon today to view the current status of the Smith River.  The first 6 miles of river are still frozen over.

None

Next Day Forecast

N/A.  I’m living in the Subaramber again so I no longer have access to WiFi daily.

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