Tweetsters,

This morning (Sunday 5/26) I did my (long overdue) rounds of Bald Eagle nests
in the Seattle area. Around 9:40 AM driving west across the West Seattle
Freeway bridge I spotted a large raptor in the eastern tower. My first
impression was "Red-tail" but something was wrong, although I couldn't quite
put my finger on it. It's funny how my search image is in "summer mode."
After checking the Salty's nest (both young, more than five weeks old, looking
great) I drove back (10 AM), this time, the lower bridge across the Duwamish.
A large raptor was still present in the same tower, so I pulled over and got
out the scope.
The moment I had the bird in the scope it flew. Wouldn't you know it. It was
definitely a large falcon. Swept-back pointed wings. But this was either the
mother of all Peregrines or something else. It was big. It's body was much
heavier than any Peregrine I've ever seen, it's wing beat was quite slow, even
though it appeared in a hurry.
The bird flew north along the river and intercepted an adult Osprey, heading
south along the river, carrying some kind of prey (I assume fish, but I didn't
pay much attention to that particular detail). The falcon started diving at
the Osprey and the two of them twirled and dodged heading south. Twice the
falcon was directly behind the Osprey, their wings beating in unison. This
gave me a good opportunity to compare wing span. And the falcon's wing span
was only a few inches shorter than the Osprey's!
The whole scene unfortunately was back-lit. I only got an impression of light
belly on the falcon and an impression of brownish above. During the aerial
dog-fight I only once had a chance to focus on the falcon's face and I did not
see a clear dark "helmet" and malar stripe.
The bird showed signs of molt in both primaries and secondaries.
Putting all of this together, I could only conclude I was looking at a
Gyrfalcon. Quite unexpected, both location (although earlier this year a gray
Gyr was reported from this same location) and date.
In hind sight I figure it was the small head and clear shoulders on this
"hawk" which made me stop and look. It didn't have the typical Red-tail
silhouette. Now, had this been a few months back, during the peak of falcon
season, with many wintering falcons in town, I'm sure I would have skipped the
Salty's eagles and done an about face and checked this bird out first. That's
what I meant with my search image being in "summer mode."

The falcon returned to the West Seattle Freeway area, east of the river and
just before disappearing behind the southern edge of the bridge, appeared to
set its wings for a landing. It never popped out on the other side of the
bridge. I have no idea where it went. I spent 1 1/2 hours scouring the area
for it, looking in all the likely and many less likely (if not downright
unlikely) spots. But no luck.

I know where I'm going to be tomorrow morning. I hope some of you will have
some time to join in the search. Assuming the bird is still around, which I
know is a long-shot.

As for the Bald Eagles, I can report that all is well at the nests I checked.
Marymoore Park has at least one three-to-four-week-old eaglet. There may be a
second one, but I couldn't tell, because one of the adult eagles stood in the
nest during the observation period.
North Mercer Island most likely has young, but they are probably no more than
1 to 2 weeks old. One adult was standing in the nest, looking down, but I
couldn't see the young.
South Mercer Island has at least one young, looking good. Still can't be sure
there isn't a second one.
Seward Park has two, three-week old eaglets.
West Seattle has two, five-to-six-week-old eaglets.
Discovery Park has two six-week-old eaglets. They were fed crow (most likely
nestling crow) while I observed. One of the eaglets tried to take the prey
from the adult female who brought it in, but she took it back and fed both of
them after plucking, sending blackish feathers drifting off in the breeze. One
eaglet choked down what looked like the whole head of the crow. Most likely
this was a nestling crow, like last year when these eagles also raided crow's
nests. And we wonder why crows get upset with eagles...

This week I was told of an active nest on Yarrow Point. I will have to check
this out later this week. I will keep you posted.

Martin Muller, Seattle
martinmuller at msn.com