Warwick Gyrfalcon & Merlin

Warwick Gyrfalcon

Blake's blog recently featured an excellent lingering rarity - the Warwick Gyrfalcon! As the work-week ended - I talked to Rick and Jeremy H about carpooling to see this bird and joined up with Jerermy H with high hopes of seeing this bird. I wanted to carpool to reduce my carbon footprint and also to have more eyes on the bird - not to mention good company. Soon after arriving in the prescribed area, we caught sight of this fantastic arctic beauty.  A life bird for Jeremy and myself!

Even though this photos are not too good, I had soul-satisfying views of this bird through Jeremy's scope. It soon flew off and even watching fly away was nice. Its a great bird!


An alternative post title was going to be: Gyr, Mer, Brr, & Jer!!!

Just as the Gyrfalcon flew off, a Merlin flew in for some nice looks though our scope.

Gyr, Jer and I spent some time looking for other good birds in the area such as Snowy Owl and Northern Shrike but were content to return home. Snow Buntings, Northern Harriers and Red tailed Hawks were abundant along the roadways. It has been a while since I've seen Snow Buntings so it was nice to see them. Did you know that the "all about birds" main photo for Snow Buntings is one of mine? See it here: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snow_Bunting/id .

Good Birding!
Dwayne

Recent Life List Additions:

Mississippi Kite 394
Grey Flycatcher 395
Sabine's Gull 396

Gyrfalcon 397