Teslin Lake - end of the season 2013

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.

I can boogie!

Youngsters Thayer's (front) and Herring Gull

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)

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!



 



Parting shot - a grouse was here!