A leisurely stroll around the Newman Arboretum at the edge of Cornell Campus this afternoon around 2:00 took a dramatic turn when a huge falcon flew in to chase off the Turkey Vultures that were sitting on the tower at the top of the hill (far east end of road, here <https://goo.gl/maps/h7GUG3huUYMhwrQK9>.) Although gyr was my immediate first impression, the surrealness of the situation made it take a couple of minutes to convince myself that it was indeed a dark juvenile GYRFALCON and not a monstrous Peregrine. It sat on the tower for a few minutes before taking off again to head away to the WNW, where we quickly lost it behind trees. I didn't really get a sense for how far it went or where it was headed, but much of campus or the south end of Cayuga Lake are in that direction. A quick check of Stewart Park immediately after did not turn up any raptors or agitated-looking waterfowl.
It was much browner and streakier than the birds I'm used to seeing, but the overall size and shape, especially in direct flight, screamed Gyr. I could see the legs fairly well in photos, and it did not show any bands or jesses. It's a sensitive species on eBird so the checklist link won't help, but you can see the photos in media search: https://search.macaulaylibrary.org/catalog?taxonCode=gyrfal&mediaType=p®ionCode=US-NY-109&cap=all&includeUnconfirmed=T And of course, it's clearly a different bird than the adult being seen near the quarry near Seneca Falls (which was seen this afternoon as well as the past couple of days). Jay -- Jay McGowan Ithaca, NY jw...@cornell.edu -- 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/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
