Tweets

Yesterday, I found a second Gyr in the Snohomish Valley. I also saw the
original Gyr and the Golden Eagle, in their usual places. This new Gyr
was perching on a telegraph pole on Short School Road, on the east side of
the Snohomish River, to the SSE of Snohomish (this is where the Ross's
Goose has been reported; it was not there yesterday). Although this is
also an adult grey bird, it is certainly a different bird to the other in
that it has a very heavily streaked throat and underparts, whereas the
first bird has a clean white throat, with very little streaking on its
belly and flanks. I don't know if these differences are due to age or
sex.
This bird showed a very interesting behavior, in that it perched and
watched a Northern Harrier hunt until the Harrier caught something, at
which stage the Gyr harassed it to drop its prey, took the food and ate
it! I saw it do this twice. Reminded me of a Jaeger.
I also had a juv Peregrine (nominate race) near to Golden Eagle.


Chris McInerny