I visited the advertised spot today, and found a large, almost uniformly
dark raptor, and later saw another (possibly different) almost uniformly
dark raptor.

The first bird was perched at a very long distance, then flew closer, albeit
still at a distance, and I had a frontal view in good light. His face,
throat, and body were all very dark -- I'd characterize it as dark brown,
*not* gray -- with the exception of a white(?) undertail and a small white
spot on the breast.

The second bird was perched in less advantageous light (I was parked near
the end of a dead-end road to the east), and I couldn't make much of it
until it flew. Fortunately, it flew in a direction that took it further
away from the sun, so I had a decent look. It looked very like the
illustration of the dark adult in Sibley's, being dark throughout but with a
two-toned underwing, with the leading edge darker. There was no trace of
the white on the other bird, but it was pretty close to the same area and I
can't say for sure that these were two different birds.

Is either of these consistent with the gyrfalcon that has been seen? I
recall someone referring to it as a gray morph, and I don't believe that
either of these birds could fit that description. Moreover, the flight of
both was troubling. It didn't seem falcon-like to me at all, but I have no
experience of gyrfalcon, so I didn't know what to make of it. It was just
moving a short way from perch to perch; is it possible that its flight is
highly variable with context? And because of the uniformity, neither bird
looked like a dark phase red tail or dark phase Swainson's hawk. Could
either of my descriptions be consistent with one of these?


Jim McCoy
jfmccoy at earthlink.net
Redmond, WA