October 15 [No observation] (Terry Waters) A cold front moved south over the area during the night reducing the temperature to -5C, bringing heavy snow that persisted to 1130 and completely obscuring the ridges until late in the day.

I spent 10.33 hours at the Piitaistakis-South Livingstone site with Greg Stempien who had spent the previous 2 days driving 2,600 km from Iowa to spend a couple of days at the site. Having followed the blog for a number of years he wanted to see it for himself. The weather, however, did not appear auspicious as the site experienced unstable conditions associated with the front that was dumping snow on the Mount Lorette site, and we experienced low temperatures, W winds gusting to 80 km/h that diminished to 15-30 km/h in the afternoon, and 60-100% cloud cover that brought periods of snow, flurries and hail until mid afternoon. Surprisingly, there was quite a good raptor movement with 47 migrants of 10 species moving between 0913 and 1740, with many of the birds flying low and close to the ridge top much to the delight of Greg. The flight comprised 1 Osprey, 1 adult Bald Eagle, 1 unaged Sharp-shinned Hawk, 3 adult Northern Goshawks, 1 unidentified small Accipiter, 1 adult light morph calurus Red-tailed Hawk, 5 light morph Rough-legged Hawks, 29 Golden Eagles (14a, 6sa, 7j, 2u), 1 juvenile grey morph Gyrfalcon, 3 Peregrine Falcons (2a, 1j) and a Prairie Falcon. There was also a variety of non-raptors moving including 3 American Robins, 18 Grey-crowned Rosy Finches, 40 Pine Siskins and, more unusual for the site, a flock of 20 Snow Geese flying high to the south at 1344, 4 Herring Gulls (3a, 1 first winter bird) at 1255 and a single Northern Shrike flying high to the south west of the ridge at 1325.