March 12 [Day 8] (Doug Pedersen) The temperature reached a high of 5.5C at 1600 from a morning low of -4C, ground winds were S-SSW averaging 10 km/h gusting to 20 km/h in the morning and up to 30 km/h in mid-afternoon, while ridge winds were mainly strong WSW-SW gusting to 115 km/h. Cloud cover was initially 10% altocumulus but quickly thickened to 90% altocumulus and stratocumulus at 0900 reducing to 10-70% for the rest of the day. The eastern ridges were clear all day but up to 20% of the western ridges were obscured by downslope cloud. Raptor movement started early with an adult Golden Eagle moving north at 0805 and when the last Golden Eagle moved at 1754 a season high count of 73 Golden Eagles (59a, 4j, 3sa, 7u) had been tallied. The highest hourly Golden Eagle counts were 18 from 1500 to 1600 and 17 from 1700 to 1800: the Golden Eagle migration has finally started. The only other raptor migrant was an undifferentiated immature Bald Eagle. A single Snow Bunting was the first for the season. 12 hours (88.25) BAEA 1 (7), GOEA 73 (94) TOTAL 74 (94)

Rob Domenech of the Raptor View Research Institute has kindly sent me a map that shows that their adult female Golden Eagle number 78453 roosted overnight on Bluff Mountain immediately west of the Piitaistakis-South Livingstone site this evening. The bird was captured and fitted with a transmitter during the third week of October, 2010 and spent the winter in the Paradise Valley just south of Livingstone, Montana and just north of Yellowstone National Park. It will be interesting to see if the bird moves north over the Mount Lorette site and how long it takes to get there.