Correction: It was Dave Evans who banded the Gyr and NOT David Alexander. One of these days I'm going to get everyone's names right... sigh...
My apologies. Thanks to Frank N and Mike H for catching that and bringing it to my attention. --Chris W On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 5:09 PM, linda whyte <[email protected]> wrote: > Does anyone know if the Gyrfalcon currently overwintering in Superior, WI > might be the same one that was seen for a few winters in a row in Dakota > County? I don't recall the Dakota one being banded, though I saw it several > times. But I have heard that the Superior one was banded by Jackie > (Fallon?) over 14 years ago and is the oldest living one in banding record; > not that the views we had of it yesterday allowed us to see a band. > > Nevertheless, this was a very impressive bird to see. We had first sought > it in mid-morning with no luck. Having heard it's usually seen between 2 > and 4 in the afternoon, we returned to Connor's Point then. Despite 2 hours > of diligent searching from just outside the Peavey grain elevator property, > we couldn't find it on any of the structures and decided to leave. > Before departing, we drove the length of the dead-end road, looking for > another glimpse of a Hoary Redpoll we'd seen in a small garden there. While > we were doing that, the Gyrfalcon flew into the Peavey property, according > to another birder there. We were scrutinizing the structures as we drove > out, and Curt spotted the bird just as the other birder was trying to > signal us. He and Rob worked to find good scoping scoping points. > The bird had landed on the northwest corner (harbor side) of a tall, square > stanchion of metal struts in front of the building with the red "Peavey" > lettering. By perching there, it was likely able to scan the nearby flock > of mallards foraging on the SE corner of the Peavey rail-lot, without being > seen by the ducks. > It spent about a half hour perched, facing the sunlight, affording us great > looks in our scopes at its facial features and belly. It turned its head > over its back, presumably to the oil gland above its tail, and preened a > bit. When it lifted a leg to scratch its chin and pick at its talons, I > never thought to look for a band. Shortly afterward, around 5:00, it took > off, dropping behind the buildings out of our sight. We did not re-locate > it. It was a magnificent bird to see, and it would be nice to know if it > might be the same one that sojourned here in MN. > > Linda Whyte > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > -- Happy Birding! --Chris W, Madison, WI Tour Leader Swallowtail Birding Tours https://www.facebook.com/Swallowtailbirdingtours?ref=hl http://swallowtailedkite.blogspot.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/swallowtailphoto Interpretive Naturalist Mississippi Explorer Cruises http://mississippiexplorer.com/ [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
