October 6 [Day 17] (Joel Duncan) It was a much warmer day with a temperature of 1C at 0900 that rose to a high of 12.5C at 1600 and it was still 11C at 1930. Ground winds were light SW all day, occasionally calm but averaging 2-6 km/h with a gust of 13 km/h at 1600, and ridge winds were estimated as moderate west all day. The high wind flow, however, still appeared to be from the north. Initial cloud cover was 100% stratus with both the eastern and western ridges 80% obscured, but by 1100 all ridges were clear with an 80% altocumulus cloud cover that steadily diminished to 5% by 1600. The first migrant, an unaged Golden Eagle, was not seen until 1049, but there was a subsequent steady flow of birds until 1910, with 28 of the day's 83 raptors occurring between 1300 and 1400. The flight comprised 2 adult Bald Eagles, 3 unaged Sharp-shinned Hawks, 2 unaged Cooper's Hawks, 2 light morph calurus Red-tailed Hawks (1a,1j), 73 Golden Eagles (31a,9sa,16j,17u) and 1 probable columbarius Merlin of unknown age/sex. With the exception of a Bald Eagle seen to the west, all migrants moved high from Mount Lorette to the Fisher Range where most birds gliding high above the ridge indicating good wind-lift conditions. A good variety of non-raptor bird species was also noted including the first Brown Creeper (1) and American Tree Sparrows (3) of the season, 12 Golden-crowned and 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 9 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 1 Wilson's Warbler, 16 White-winged Crossbills, 8 Common Redpolls and 1 Pine Siskin. An unusual bird behaviour was observed around noon when a male Belted Kingfisher that was perched on a snag close to the site sallied out and caught and ate a large moth in flight. As Joel was preparing to leave the site at 1930 he became aware of a very large male Moose feeding on Wolf Willows just 7 m away, and felt it prudent to take a more circuitous route back to the parking area!

10.5 hours (186.01) BAEA 2 (28), SSHA 3 (39), COHA 2 (9), RTHA 2 (16), GOEA 73 (573), MERL 1 (5) TOTAL 83 (695)

Piitaistakis-South Livingstone (Peter Sherrington, assisted by Phil Nicholas, Gerald Romanchuk and Steve Knight) The general public were invited to join me on the ridge today and 22 visitors and myself set off up the climb at 0920. Before most had reached the site, however, the clouds had lowered, bringing light snow that reduced the temperature to -1C and completely obscured the Livingstone Ridge to the north and the mountains to the west. The wind was NW 5-10 gusting 25 km/h, and by 1225 when the snow ended and the ridges began to clear all but 3 of the visitors had departed. This was unfortunate as the temperature finally rose to 5C, the wind diminished to 5-10 km/h and had moved to the W by late afternoon and the cloud cover gradually diminished to 60-70% cumulus by the end of the day. Those of us who were left, however, were treated to a movement of 120 raptors of 5 species that occurred between 1315 and 1806, with a peak movement of 83 birds between 1500 and 1700. The flight comprised 5 Bald Eagles (3a,2j), 7 Sharp-shinned Hawks (6a,1u), 1 unaged Northern Goshawk, 6 Rough-legged Hawks (4 light, 1dark and 1 unknown morph), 1 unidentified Buteo and 100 Golden Eagles (60a,11sa,18j,11u). The last hour of the flight was particularly spectacular with birds moving low overhead or close to the ridge in bright sunshine.