Subject: Early Gyrfalcon (was: Saturday Whidbey Island, etc)
Date: Oct 20 11:59:19 1997
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Martin Muller writes:

>Brown phase Gyrfalcon.

No intent to second-guess here, Martin, but I think 'brown-morph'
individuals turn out to be grey-morph juveniles. Maybe Don or Tom can
comment here?

>Wow, what a sight! And unexpected
>(yes, Michael, I hear you, probably normal this "early" ;) )

Early by nearly a month, Martin! Wow! indeed, both for the sighting of that
powerhouse falcon and the early date. I have Nov 15--Apr 03 as working
averages for Gyrfalcon, but my hunch is that the majority of first Gyrs will
show up Week 1 Nov. Maybe like Rough-legged Hawks they also send out early
juv pioneers that no one sees until it's the appropriate time of year to see
them. Nah, Gyr's too easy to tell: if one shows up we'd know it. Maybe not;
see below.

So is a bird untypically this far out of pattern a wild bird or an escaped
falconer's bird? If there was no jesses or bands, hard to say. And before a
charge of being anti-falconer comes howling across the water, let me say
that in the six years as Vancouver BC's Alert operator, based on reports
from competent observers there seemed to be on average each year between one
and three different falconers' birds loose around Boundary Bay, sometimes
Iona Island, sometimes weird falcon X falcon crosses, a Red-tailed Hawk or
two, several Gyrs and Peregrines; once, even a Harris's Hawk. Hawks and
falcons seem remarkably easy to lose back to nature. That said, the first
birds south are juveniles, so that suggests that this bird was of wild
provenance.

I don't know what the earliest dates in WA are like but Gyrfalcons here
(Vancouver BC) seem tightly dialed in to their schedule and don't show
wildly-early/wildly late dates; quite the opposite. There is another
possibility, though, and this I warn is just a guess, is that Gyrs go
through here earlier, Weeks 3-4 Oct, but not through the relatively handful
of sites where 98% of the local birders congregate on weekends. There were
tantalising reports of large falcons high up on the local North Shore
mountains just outside the 'conventional' migration windows.

>The bird briefly
>landed on a post across the water, was harassed by a Northern Harrier and took
>for the trees, disappearing from view. A lifer for several group members.

An adult Gyr likely might have ensured that the harrier became the harried, PDQ.

Sounds like a great trip, Martin!

Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
mprice at mindlink.net