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| Warmer than average fall was evident in just small amount of snow on the surrounding mountains and none on the lake level! |
And
so yet another season at TLBO came to an end. There is not much to be written
about the last two weeks mostly because yours truly spent a significant portion
of it in bed, sick. After mid-month there were still good numbers of Bohemian Waxwings
around and a few gulls were patrolling the lake. The last day, Oct 31, a family
of Trumpeter Swans was seen as well as a juvenile Common Loon. Of course, the
local family of Gray Jays and the usual Black-billed Magpies and Common Ravens
were around and about. Small number of Common Redpolls were on the move and one
flock had a Pine Siskin in the tow. One Golden Eagle was seen heading south as
well.
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| I can boogie! |
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| Youngsters Thayer's (front) and Herring Gull |
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| A family of Trumpeter Swans on the cold foggy lake |
Below are the season's raptor counts, species organized in
the order of abundance. Notice that these numbers include both the birds
observed flying by the observatory in migration flight as well as birds just
hanging around. Bald Eagle gets the biggest gain from this as there were a few local
birds present throughout the season.
Sharp-shinned Hawk 849
Red-tailed Hawk 447
Northern Harrier 299
Golden Eagle 293
American Kestrel 178
Bald Eagle 160
Rough-legged Hawk 126
Merlin 76
Osprey 72
Peregrine Falcon 51
Northern Goshawk 18
Swainson's Hawk 3
= 2572 raptors identified to species (+ 100+ unidentified ones)
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| Sharp-shinned Hawk was the most common raptor this season. Photo from August. |
Finally, I'd like to thank a few people for making the season successful. First and foremost all of our financial supporters - without you there wouldn't be anyone doing anything at TLBO! The long term volunteers Abril Heredia and Sarah Coulthart put in a lot of time, day after day, and made things go so much smoother. Doug Martens provided the BIC with a comfortable accommodation once again and Ted Murphy-Kelly provided the volunteers with a cozy tent accommodation at the site and all the things one needs for day to day life in the outdoors. Shyloh van Delft for organizing a fund-raiser in Tagish in August. The Schonewille's for storing gear and Ben S and Nick Guenette for the set-up at the start of the season. And of course, all the other volunteers and visitors - the list is too long to mention everyone by name. THANK YOU everyone!
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| Parting shot - a grouse was here! |
