Tuesday 1 March 2016

Brick Yard Line Gyrfalcon!

Well, today was my lucky day.  A Gyrfalcon was seen over the past few days (may have been around for over a month!) west of Strathroy, and I had field work in the same area today.  I woke up extra early this morning and made my way to Brick Yard Line and was ultimately rewarded with some great sightings of a bird that I have never seen before!

If I were a bird in the area, I would be getting out of Dodge!  Everything from Snow Buntings to Canada Geese seemed to be on the menu!  I watched as this behemoth hunted a Herring Gull, and apparently it had knocked a Canada Goose out of the air just before I got there!

Gyr sizing me up, if I was just a bit smaller and had wings...

If a Gyr poops on you, is it good luck? Didn't realize I caught this until I got home!

I loved watching this bird fly! So much power!  It was a bit too fast for my little point and shoot but I still got one in flight shot.


The bird perched in this corn stubble for quite some time before taking flight.


Below are some distant shots of the Gyrfalcon hunting a Herring Gull.  The gull eventually got away I believe, but it was close!


I felt really lucky to see one of my most wanted birds today, an experience I won't soon forget!

5 comments:

  1. Good to know you got this long-staying bird! It sometimes takes some patience to find it, but many are getting the bird on their "life" list.

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  2. Nice photos and congrats on getting a new life bird. Would be a lifer for me to if I had time To go see it.

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  3. Thanks guys!Yea it was a real thrill to see this bird, one of my most wanted for a long time!

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  4. Congrats, Nate......one can't really appreciate how powerful the flight is until you see it first hand. Birds that they are hunting have little to no chance. I suspect it was just playing with the Herring Gull, as it would be no real challenge for the Gyr.

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  5. Thanks Allen, yea I was surprised at just how large and powerful this bird was! Flight was effortless and fast, and I thought it was likely playing with the goose too, since it apparently just let it go. What a treat to observe!

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