Subject: [Tweeters] Gyrfalcon - Bowerman Basin area
Date: Dec 12 18:12:56 2009
From: Bob Sundstrom - ixoreus at scattercreek.com


Tweets,

Mid-afternoon today, Dec. 12, a Gyrfalcon was seen perched on a channel marker. The channel marker is visible from the paved road that leads beyond the locked gate and parking area for access to the Grays Harbor NWR boardwalk trail. The bird was perched on the structure of a large channel marker on the edge of Grays Harbor, and was viewed from across the grass and runways of the airport there. The channel marker is about 1/4 mile walk from where you have to park near the gate and start walking toward the boardwalk. It's definitely a spotting scope distance, (maybe 1/4 mile) because you can't legally walk across the runways to get closer. The bird was an adult, close to what Wheeler describes as "adult dark intermediate (dark gray)" on p. 504 of Raptors of Western North America. There was a Peregrine on the Bowerman Basin side of the airport, perched on driftwood.

Good birding, Bob

Bob Sundstrom
Tenino, Washington
ixoreus at scattercreek.com