An altogether excellent day! We spotted a Gyrfalcon! And when that happens, it is an excellent day!
The beginning point of the Mansfield survey route is 75 miles from home and the total survey drive equals 93.7 miles. I picked up Amanda, and we headed north to Orondo, and up Pine Canyon on Highway 2 to Farmer. From Farmer we drove north on Highway 172. On this road we spotted seven Rough-legged Hawks and one Red-tailed Hawk, but, we can’t count these birds as we are not yet to our designated route. Just before Mansfield we turned north on the Bridgeport Hill Rd (Rd.B NE) to N. Oil Rd. You can see the starting point on the map below.
It was a beautiful day, with a very high layer of stratus clouds, no wind, and a brisk 29°. We headed down N. Oil Rd. and turned to Penny Lake, where we spotted a Bald Eagle. In the spring Penny Lake, though not very large, contains a large amount of water fowl. But in the winter, it is frozen over. In the past, we have seen Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks and Northern Harriers, but today there is one, lone, Bald Eagle.
Our route takes us south towards Mansfield and then east to Road H, where we turn left and head north all the way to Highway 17. As we are driving slowly along, we scan the multiple rock piles which are scattered over the fields. Fortunately, there is little traffic on these dirt roads, and no one tries to hurry us along.
As we approach Road 19 NE., I look at a rock pile and say to Amanda, “What is that?“ We stop and I pull up my binoculars. Amanda pulls up her camera. I get a good look at the bird sitting on top of the rock. It has a distinctive malar stripe and is quite large, much larger than a prairie falcon. As it lifts off, we get a view of the wings and we both say, “Gyrfalcon!” Amanda is snapping away with her camera. She didn’t get any pictures with good enough quality to post, but they were definitely good enough to confirm our identification. We are thrilled with our find!
From there we head north to Highway 17, east to Leahy Junction and south to Sims Corner. From Sims Corner we head west on Highway 172, taking a couple of side roads up through the fields and back. From there, we head to Mansfield and south to the north end of Jameson Lake. We were told that Golden Eagles nest in the basalt cliffs, and we have seen them there in the past, but not today. From Jameson, we had back to Mansfield and west to Rd. C NE, where we drive through wheat and grass fields to the end of our route. We have not seen the usual variety of raptors today as we have on this route in the past. Even though we don’t record them, we usually see a coyote or two up in this area. They were not out today. However, we did see 112 mule deer, which is always fun.
Here’s a list of what we saw today:
Red-tailed Hawk 3
American Kestrel 1
Northern Harrier 2
Bald Eagle 1
Rough-legged Hawk 12
Gyrfalcon 1
