Crowsnest Pass Interpretive
Migration Watch Each Weekend of October
Rocky Mountain Eagle Foundation will offer free interpretive migration watches each weekend in October at a new, easily accessible site near the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre in Crowsnest Pass.
Visitors will be greeted from 10 am Saturdays and Sundays at the east end of the parking lot. Greeters will guide visitors along a short hike to the observation site. Bring binoculars, water and snacks. Hiking boots and protective headwear is advised.
There are no toilet facilities at the observation site, so take advantage of the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre washrooms before setting out.
Visitors unable to walk the distance will be driven to the observation site.
Canmore Eagle Festival Progam
Autumn Count at Mount Lorette
The Mount Lorette Eagle count starts 20 September and continues 7 days a week until about 15 November. Assistants and visitors are welcome. Click here for directions to the observation site.
Email Cliff Hansen to assist.
Alternative Logo Approved by Directors
This graphic has been approved by the Directors as an alternative to the previous official logo. The new graphic has the advantage of existing in a "vector" format that can be scaled without loss of quality for any use from billboard to business card.
Final Report Mount Lorrette Count Autumn 2010
Download Peter Sherrington's full report on the Autumn 2010 raptor count at Mount Lorrette.
Follow the actual 2011 migration of Elaine,
an adult Golden Eagle being satellite-tracked
by the Raptor View Research Institute.
Mount Lorette Raptor Count Spring 2011
For the daily count archive, please click here . . .
Eagle-Eye View of Piistaistakis Count Site
Crownsnest Pass photographer Bob Pisko captured this view of the Piistaiskis observation (South Livingstone Ridge) site in September 2010. This year's autumn count is being conducted from the Mount Lorette observation site only. It is expected that spring count will be undertaken at the Piistaistakis site by Research Director Peter Sherrington.
EagleWatch Observation Workshop
A one-day observation workshop was conducted Sept. 12 at the Mount Lorette observation site.Participants were (L to R) Terry Waters, Peter Sherrington, Ed McCullough, Jim Davis, Cliff Hansen, Joel Duncan and Doug Pedersen.
Peter Sherrington Cricket Shocker
After years of boasting personal prowess in the British amusement known as "cricket", Research Director Peter Sherrington whiffs the ball like a novice during the annual picnic of the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation.
Spring 2010 Migration Report
Golden Eagles and other Raptors Continue Decline
This was the 3rd consecutive spring count at Piitaistakis-South Livingstone which provided the lowest Golden Eagle (2185) and combined species (3039) count there so far with 15 of 18 species occurring in below average numbers. Immature:adult ratios for both Bald and Golden Eagles were low and compare very closely with those at Mount Lorette. This was the 3rd consecutive extended comparison count at Mount Lorette, and the 18th since complete counts started there in 1992. It produced the first increase in Golden Eagle numbers in 4 years, but the projected count of 1289 birds is still only 31% of the average 1993-5 counts at the site, and the strong declining trend for the species since 1996 is unaffected. A first extended spring reconnaissance count at Steeples Ridge in BC on the western flanks of the Rocky Mountains at the same latitude as Piitaistakis-South Livingstone yielded high age ratios for both Bald and Golden Eagles so different from those of the Alberta sites that it raises fundamental questions about the relationship of eagles moving on the western and eastern flanks of the Rockies.
Download the full report
CBC National Covers Eagle Count for Earth Day
CBC cameraman Dave Rae shoots Peter Sherrington for Earth Day feature.
As part of its Earth Day coverage, CBC's flagship news program The National dispatched a crew to report on the scientific tally of eagles converging on Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, for their northward migration along the Front Ranges of the Rockies. The item was scheduled to air at 10 pm, Wednesday, April 21 – the eve of Earth Day 2010.
Southwestern Alberta's spring and fall eagle migrations are attracting increasing attention from scientists, birding enthusiasts, and now national media. CBC reporter Kim Brunhuber and cameraman Dave Rae spent several hours Thursday, April 15 with ornithologist Peter Sherrington and his coterie of citizen scientists at an observation site on Valley Ridge Road.
The television reporter quizzed Sherrington about the steady decline in the numbers of spring migrant eagles over the past 14 years. Sherrington postulated that the changes to habitat in the Great Plains is causing excessive winter mortality. The eagle's low natural reproductive rate cannot compensate for the increased winter mortality.
The eagles declined to perform for the camera, with just one golden eagle sighted while the CBC crew was present. Perversely, a strong flight of eight bald and nine golden eagles appeared once the camera had gone. That made 2023 golden eagles since the count began 56 days earlier. There will have to be a strong late-season surge to approach last year's total of 2737 tallied by the end of the count May 25.
This is the 19th year that Peter Sherrington, research director of the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation and resident of Beaver Mines, has documented the spring and fall migrations, which extend from Mexico to the Yukon and Alaska. Sherrington, a paleontologist by training and an alumnus of the petroleum industry, re-discovered this, the world's only known mass migration of golden eagles in 1992.
The migration was probably known to pre-colonial Blackfoot who called the southernmost peak of the Livingstone Range “Piitaistakis” -- Eagle Mountain. Blackfoot miners frequented the mountain, an easy climb from Frank, to extract razor-sharp, pink-tinged chert stone to make tools and projectile points.
And here's the clip from The National . . .