October 20 [Day 53] This was the first day when the temperature failed to get above freezing, starting and finishing at -3C and reaching 0C in the early afternoon. Winds were WNW to W all day generally gusting between 30 and 40 km/h and the cloud cover ranged from 60% to 90% cumulus, altostratus and cirrus giving excellent observation conditions all day. Golden Eagle movement started at 0817 and 12 birds had moved south before 0900. Movement was steady all day and the last Golden Eagle passed at 1840. At 1719 we counted the 4000th Golden Eagle of the season; last year the 4000th bird didn’t appear until November 4th. We have now counted 3264 Golden Eagles so far in October compared to 3179 for the entire month last year. Similarly, the combined species October total to date of 4278 has also exceeded last year’s total month count of 4267 (and there are still 11 days left in this month!). The total of 10 Northern Goshawks is the highest daily count so far, the 4 Rough-legged Hawks were the first for 5 days and the adult Peregrine Falcon at 1744 brought the season’s total to 35. The highlight of the day, however, was another sort of raptor: a Northern Hawk Owl that perched in exactly the same tree as last year’s bird seen on October 12. Passerine movement was varied and included 4 American Robins, 3 Dark-eyed Juncos, 1 Lapland Longspur, 243 Grey-crowned Rosy Finches and 40 Common Redpolls. Common Ravens, that were conspicuously absent in the morning, moved strongly into the mountains from the SE throughout the afternoon and we ended up with a season high daily count of 106 birds. 11.83 hours (596.02) BAEA 12 (227), SSHA 7 (1184), NOGO 10 (88), RLHA 4 (26), GOEA 114 (4017), PEFA 1 (35) TOTAL 148 (6180)