April 6 Daily Flight Summary

this AMRO was all puffed up trying to warm up this morning

Official Counter         

Adam Richardson

Observers       

None

Weather         

Freezing rain from 06:00-07:00 with thick fog down on the river.  The Smith River was over its banks in the morning the highest it has reached so far.  The river continued to rise through the remainder of the day and Sheep Creek was running high as well.  Partly cloudy skies at 09:00 becoming overcast for the remainder of the day by 11:30. Cumulus clouds gave way to thick stratus and a little nimbo-stratus to the south along the Big Belts.  Thermal lift was fair to poor.  The winds were 3-10kph out of the S-SW gusting occasionally to 22kph.  Low temperature of 4C and a high of 11 by 14:30. The barometer was fairly steady through the count as the approaching weather from the SW fizzled out later in the afternoon.  Visibility was excellent to for the entirety of the day.

Raptor Notes 

(1) SS (1) NG.  A slow day with only 2 migrants coming through.  The SS came through first at 14:00 flying in from the west below my horizon from behind the forested knob to the south of the OP.  It then moved off over the Smith River and over the small rise that divides Sheep Creek from the Smith.  Once it had worked its way back to Berkins Butte it took a couple final turns before shooting on north into the canyon.  About an hour later when a vehicle was driving into the campground an adult NOGO shot through on a very direct route.  I did get excellent views top down on the bird as it chose to fly right down the river and over to the face of Berkins Butte where it was attacked by the resident NOHA.  This was to date my most memorable NOGO encounter.

Residents were all active with a new arrival of (1) TUVU.  This bird flew in from the north and spent time circling over Berkins Butte before heading off into the canyon to the NW of the OP. 

The MERL was seen yet again zipping through far on the eastern route off the top of Jumbo.  One of the resident NOHA was seen doing its version of a roller-coaster display, which I have never seen before, more of a slicing motion or a yo-yo then a true free fall like GOEA.

Non-raptor Notes

The NOPI were spotted again amongst all of the common dabblers up at the Johnston Pasture.

Visitors            

frying up a mean batch of tofu

None

Next Day Forecast

N/A

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