A Case of Mistaken Identity

We decided that January was the month we would find our Gyrfalcon. In the past five years we have spotted a GYRF five times, three times in January and twice in November. We hadn’t seen one this year, so we decided that it was time!

As we drove our survey route, all the time hoping for a GYRF, we saw a wide variety of other raptors and wildlife. The road leading to Penny Lake has yielded coyotes before and it did not disappoint today! Two beautiful specimens were running across the field, heading west. I would’ve loved to have gotten a photo of them, but my big lens is in the repair shop. So any photos I take will be on another day. 

The Penny Lake road always has at least one visitor, sometimes several. Today it had only one, an American Kestrel. We could have called this survey, “The Day of the Kestrel,” as the entire day yielded a total of ten American Kestrels, a survey high for us.

As we continued on our survey route we picked up a few other birds of prey. The Prairie Falcon that lives just east of Mansfield made an appearance. We wove our way down Mary Jane Hill to the East Foster Creek valley and to Terry Hayes Road. Terry Hayes usually produces a wealth of interesting creatures. But today, no one was home. The Great Horned Owl was not in its tree, the porcupines had not returned, and the Golden Eagle we frequently see above the basalt was not there.

As we headed east, through Leahy Junction, south to Simms Corner, and west, we picked up a respectable seven birds: two Red-tailed Hawks, three American Kestrels, one Rough-legged Hawk and one sub-adult Bald Eagle.

And then we turned north from Highway 172 – Gyrfalcon territory! This is an area where we have spotted three Gyrfalcons in years past. Our hopes were high! We had our eyes peeled! We did see one Rough-legged Hawk sitting on a rock pile, but we were on the hunt for a Gyr!

And then, a couple miles north of the highway, there it was! I braked to a stop in the middle of the road (you can do that up there in the middle of nowhere, on the Waterville plateau). 

“What do you see?”

“There on that rock pile!  What is that?”  Three pair of binoculars lift to three pair of eyes to examine the bird, who is quite a distance away.

“It’s really big! Is it a PRFA (Prairie Falcon)?”

“That’s bigger than any PRFA I’ve ever seen!”

“Maybe it’s a GYRF! Maybe we found our GYRF!”  We spent several minutes looking, squinting, discussing what we were looking at.

“It’s the right color.  It’s the right shape. Can’t really see the facial markings.“

“And, it’s really big.”

Since neither Amanda nor I had our cameras, I turned to Don in the backseat. “Can you snap a picture?” But, he is already lifting his camera. We look at the tiny image on the LCD screen, but it’s too small to really tell. We know we’ll have to put it on a computer screen and enlarge it to really see what we’ve got. But we’re hopeful… Maybe we found our GYRF… 

We backtrack to Highway 172 and head west to Mansfield. We drive around in town looking for the Merlin, but he is hiding. We then head south toward the north end of Jameson Lake. This road usually has quite a few inhabitants, and is the second place where we have seen a Gyrfalcon in the past. Today there is no GYRF sitting on power pole.  However, we did pick up four Red-tails, six Kestrels, and four Rough-leggeds.

Post Survey: The picture on Don‘s camera revealed a Prairie Falcon. We all agreed it looked very large for a Prairie Falcon. Maybe it was wishful thinking that made it appear so big. But, it really did look that big!  I sent the photo for confirmation to an Audubon friend who is a wildlife biologist. Secretly, I was still hoping it might be a GYRF. But no such a luck. She said because it was large it could have been a female and puffed up against the cold.  

So… We’ll wait for February. Maybe in February we’ll also see a Snowy Owl. We haven’t seen one of those yet this year, either.

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA) 6
American Kestrel (AMKE) 10
Northern Harrier (NOHA) 2
Bald Eagle – Sub-Adult (BAEA) 1
Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) 9
Prairie Falcon (PRFA) 2

Coyotes  2
Mule deer  2