September 28 [Day 9] (Cliff Hansen, assisted by Kevin Barker) The cooling trend continued with the temperature reaching 11.5C at 1500 and 1600 from a morning low of 0C. Ground winds were SW-WSW all day, light to 1100 then gusting to 15-25 km/h to 1500 after which they again became light, while ridge winds were mainly moderate WSW-SW occasionally gusting to 50-60 km/h. Initial cloud cover was 40% cumulus that gradually dwindled throughout the day to 5% at 2000, generally giving good detection conditions although aging the birds was challenging in the morning. Today saw the first significant pulse of Golden Eagle movement with 70 birds (35a,4sa,16j,15u) moving between 0839 and 1941, which is by far the latest movement seen so far this season. Most birds appeared at the northern end of the Fisher Range and may have been moving to the SE from Heart Mountain; only one bird was seen over Mount Lorette. An adult male Northern Harrier and a light morph Rough-legged Hawk were first records for the season and other raptors counted were 2 adult Bald Eagles, 1 adult Sharp-shinned Hawk and a single small unidentified raptor. A total of 235 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches moved south in flocks of 20-50 birds throughout the day and a juvenile Northern Shrike was new for the season. Now that the movement is well underway there is a greater need for assistance in locating migrants and any help that you can give will be valuable. Please consider volunteering as a “Skysweeper” at the site, especially during the afternoon when movement is usually heaviest.

12.25 hours (111.24 hours) BAEA 2 (9), NOHA 1 (1), SSHA 1 (24), RLHA 1 (1), GOEA 70 (109), UU 1 (1) TOTAL 76 (159)