March 10 [Day 9] (Cliff Hansen) The temperature at 0940 was 4C and rose to a high of 8C at 1500 and 1600 before falling to 4C at 1830. Ground winds were SW 10 gusting 30 km/h reaching 45 km/h in mid-afternoon, and ridge winds were strong SW-SSW gusting 129 km/h at 1300. Cloud cover was 60% cumulus to 1200 and then 50-90% cumulus, cirrus and altostratus for the rest of the day, giving excellent observing conditions. A season-high total of 14 raptors migrated between 1133 and 1640 peaking at 6 birds (1 Bald and 5 Golden Eagles) between 1400 and 1500. The flight comprised 1 adult Bald Eagle and 13 Golden Eagles (10a,1j,1u). The non-raptor highlight of the day was the season's first Western Meadowlark that Cliff photographed in the Hay Meadow at 1345. 8.29 hours (78.44) BAEA 1 (3), GOEA 13 (25) TOTAL 14 (28).

Beauvais Ridge No observation

The further adventures of “Elaine” (Golden Eagle #78453)

Elaine, an adult female Golden Eagle was captured and fitted with a transmitter during the third week of October, 2010 by Rob Domenech and his colleagues from the Raptor View Research Institute in Montana. She spent the winter of 2010-11 in the Paradise Valley just south of Livingstone, Montana and just north of Yellowstone National Park. In the spring of 2011 she moved north, roosting for a night (March 12) along the way on Bluff Mountain just west of our Piitaistakis-South Livingstone site and the next day crossed Mount Lorette on her way north. By early April she had reached the southern flank of the Philip Smith Mountains of the Brooks Range in northeastern Alaska where she spent the summer. Rob informed me that it was not known if she bred there.

In the fall of 2011 Elaine started her southward journey on October 1 and had reached the Yukon by October 7, and then slowly moved to the SE and on October 26 she was in the northernmost part of the Rocky Mountains of NE BC. Four days later she was in northern Montana having moved rapidly along the Front Range expressway, after which she continued to make a a leisurely progress south before wintering again in Paradise Valley in southern Montana.

This spring Elaine probably entered Alberta on March 8 and after moving up the Front Ranges spent the night of March 10 in the vicinity of Mount Lorette. She was probably one of the birds seen by Cliff today.

You can follow her progress on a map on the seaturtle.org site via the link on our website.