April 15 [Day 41] (Bill Wilson) Yesterday's weather persisted to 1100 when the very light snow stopped and the ridges slowly began to clear. The temperature at 0605 was -5C, rose to 1C between 1400 and 1800 and dropped to -1C at 2000. Ground winds were N-NNE 2-10 gusting 20 km/h all day, while ridge winds were WSW-SW light to moderate. The 100% stratus cloud cover persisted to 1100 when it reduced to 60% stratus and cumulus and at 1300 and 1400 it was down to 30% before it again thickened to 100% slightly broken stratus for the rest of the day after 1500. The eastern ridges began to emerge from cloud at 1100 when they were 10% visible and slowly increased to 20% clear at 1300 and were completely clear at 1700, while the western ridges were 100% obscured to 1300, became 20% visible at 1600 and did not fully clear until 1900. Despite the conditions, the first bird of the day, an adult male Northern Harrier flew north at 0941, the first 2 Golden Eagles followed at 0955 and 12 migrants had been seen before the ridges started to clear at 1100. Almost all of the 49 migrant raptors recorded moved low below the cloud in front of the flanks of mount Allan to the west, while after 1543 the birds were located over Hummingbird Plume Hill before they moved to the NW over Skogan Pass, or flew to the NE past the south face of Mount Lorette. Several birds soared high into the low cloud and were not seen again. The combined species count of 49 was the highest since April 7 and comprised 1 adult male Northern Harrier, 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks (1a,1u), 1 adult Cooper's Hawk, 4 Northern Goshawks (2a,2u), 2 Red-tailed Hawks (1 adult light morph calurus and 1 undifferentiated dark morph) and 38 Golden Eagles (11a,7sa,15j,5u), the latter being the highest count since April 6. The highest single hour count was 12 (3 Northern Goshawks, 1 Red-tailed Hawk and 8 Golden Eagles) between 1100 and 1200, and the 2 Golden Eagles seen at 1543 finally put the season's total for the species above 1000 which is about 1600 below the average total for this time. Songbirds seen at the site included 1 Northern Shrike, 2 Townsend's Solitaires, 4 Mountain Bluebirds, 170 American Robins, 28 Dark-eyed Juncos and 1 Western Meadowlark. 14.25 hours (418.32) BAEA 1 (80), NOHA 1 (2), SSHA 2 (20), COHA 1 (6), NOGO 4 (16), RTHA 2 (44), GOEA 38 (1008) TOTAL 48 (1208)