Dear Cobirders,
Although I didn't spot Todd's large Falcon from earlier today, I off-
handedly mentioned an encounter I had with and enormous Falcon along
the Eagle Trail in Boulder County on 12/12 to Nathan Pieplow this
evening. I first spotted this Falcon along a north-south fence line
along the Eagle Trail just north of the Mesa Reservoir on the
afternoon of 12/12 (40.072441N, -105.253821E). At first, I thought
the bird was a Red-tailed Hawk and I positioned myself in such a way
as to block the Sun and get better light. The bird was a large Falcon
with a heavily streaked chest and enormous shoulders and brown back;
it's wing tips fell short of its tail, eliminating Peregrine Falcon.
According to measurements made after the fact, I was about 100-120
yards away from the bird with the sun behind the ridge and
perpendicular to my line of sight. I watched this Falcon for about
15-20 minutes until a horse approached it and spooked it. As it flew
away, I noted that the axillaries and underwing coverts were darker
than then remainder of the underwing and I assumed that this excluded
all other species except Prairie Falcon. Nathan suggested I look at
photographs of juvenile gray morph Gyrfalcons from Doug Backlund
(http://wildphotosphotography.com/WildPhotos/index.htm
). I now have a hard time discounting juvenile Gyrfalcon based on my
field notes. Furthermore, I would encourage anyone observing large
Falcons along the Front Range to take detailed field notes as this
identification does not appear as straightforward as most drawings and
descriptions woud suggest. I would aslo suggest that folks check the
corridor east of Hwy 36 and west of 55th St. north of Boulder in the
coming week as it seems at least possible that a Gyrfalcon could be
present.
Good CBC'ing,
Walter Szeliga
Boulder, CO
--
Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/
Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/
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