Subject: Samish Gyr
Date: Mar 12 20:43:09 2004
From: Parent Family - dpdvm at whidbey.com


Tweeters,

The Samish GYRFALCON is still in the vicinity of the West 90. My wife
and I located it about noon today flying from the vicinity of some
wheeling harriers and flying, desperately croaking herons. It flew to a
utility pole just east of the "90", about fifty yards from us and
proceeded to consume a rather large vole in record time.

After eating lunch and shopping in Burlington we returned to the West 90
right before sunset, hoping for an encore. We located the Gyr on a low
post south of the WDFG parking lot. Suddenly, it launched and made a
beeline toward some flying harriers and rough-legged hawks about a
half-mile away. We were amazed to see how fast it covered that distance
with seemingly little effort. It neatly robbed a rough-legged hawk of
another large vole, chewed on the rodent a bit while in flight, returned
to the same post, and had dinner finished in less than two minutes.

All in all, a spectacular bird in a beautiful setting. Even without the
Gyr, where else can you see 20-30 raptors in a 360 degree binocular
sweep? We were wondering how this bird will fare when it heads north and
has to make an honest living!

Dave Parent. Freeland, WA
dpdvm at whidbey.com