I was birding today at Lower Lake Road Seneca Falls, Cayuga Lake with Melissa Penta, Jon Weeks and my son, Mark when the report came in about the GYRFALCON. Since we were really close, we headed right up there. Thanks to all for the timely reporting!
We first went to East Road and looked and looked and could not find the falcon. This was around 200 pm or so. There were many TUNDRA SWANS and other typical waterfowl on the K-M Marsh ice, which was really cool. We saw Bob, Ann and group on Towpath Road so we went on Towpath. As expected, it was in really really bad condition and would not recommend people going on it unless you have four wheel drive. After Bob, Ann and group left (maybe 10-20 minutes), we saw what was presumed to be a GYRFALCON from Towpath Road adjacent to the far end of Puddler's. The bird was flying low over the dike between Puddler's and K-M Marsh which was fairly distant now for us. It was a bulky dark falcon as it clearly had pointed wings as it was chasing some mallards. It would drop occasionally below the dike level from where we were. We got good enough views to confirm it was a falcon and that it likely was not a peregrine or Merlin. Then, after we had lost it for a minute or two, we saw a "raptor-like" bird in a tree at the edge of the woods adjacent to the north end of K-M marsh. But, we did not have good enough looks from Towpath road as it was very distant. The more we looked at this bird the more it really looked like a rough-legged hawk from that distance so we became unsure if we re-found it again. After some time here, we then went back to East Road. The bird was in a tree at the corner of the woodlot to the north side of K-M Marsh and much closer than from Towpath and it indeed was a GYRFALCON. I am still not 100% sure that the bird we had at East Road was the same one we saw in the tree from Towpath road. In any event, persistence paid off and we got on the bird with satisfying looks especially with the scope at 60X. I tried but only was able to get 1 poor digi-scoped image among several taken with my scope at 20X. (I just cannot do digiscoping with 60X!) http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/8379075344/in/photostream Thanks again to all who reported it so quickly. Dave Nicosia ________________________________ From: bob mcguire <[email protected]> To: cayugabirdlist <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013 5:36 PM Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Gyrfalcon Details Twelve of us on the Cayuga Bird Club field trip were at the Knox-Marcellus overlook around 1:30 watching some 800 Tundra Swans and 100 Mallards/Black Ducks on the ice. One of us (not sure who) drew our attention to several crows atop one of the taller trees at the east end of the woods on the left (north) end of the impoundment. Directly below the crows was a largish (noticably bigger than the crows) raptor partially hidden by branches. Through multiple scopes and over a half hour of observation we were able to piece together a fairly full description, leaving us with the tentative ID of 1st year Gyr. We observed: grayish-brown back and wings, vertically streaked breast, light-colored head with a thin dark line extending from slightly in front of the eye to well behind it, finely barred tail, bluish bill, fluffy-covered, gray legs (one observer reported yellow feet). After about 30 minutes the bird took flight, headed straight for the group of ducks on the ice, flushing them all (the swans stayed put) and chasing one in looping circles until it escaped to the east over Puddler's. During the flight we observed pointed, dark-tipped wings, two-toned wings (coverts noticeably darker than the flight feathers). At that point we all concluded that it was, indeed, a Gryfalcon. The bird ended up in one of the smaller trees just past the K-M dike to the east. We subsequently checked from Towpath Rd and did not re-find it. My thanks to all the participants for their patience (on an otherwise slow day) and great help with the Gyr. Here's hoping that it finds the food to its liking and stays in the area for a while. Bob McGuire -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
