[birding] Details about the White Gyr

[Paul Jaussi]

For what it is worth regarding the "white" falcon:

Last summer my father-in-law and I were golfing at Langdon Farms near the
Aurora airport and noticed a white, falcon-like bird flying around the tops
of some trees 300-400 yards from us. We watched it for 5-10 minutes and were
able to put binoculars on it (my father-in-law carries binos golfing as
he keeps a unique list: Birds seen on a golf course). It appeared pure white
with no markings, especially as the late afternoon sun reflected off it. We
quickly ruled it out as a gull as its flight pattern and shape didn't match.
We ruled it out as a shore bird as it was too large and again, the flight
pattern was wrong. It seemed to be hunting as it would go up around, in and
out of the tops of large pine trees (50-60 feet tall), glide down low and
circle over the marshes, and then back up around the trees. It never stopped
flying during the entire time we watched it until it went behind the trees
and didn't come back. We never put a positive ID on it as we couldn't match
it to anything but both of us would have called it a falcon of some sort. It
was during one of the hotter days of the year (we remember because people
were cancelling tee-times due to the heat and we were able to get on the
course same-day).

FYI, I'm new to this email list and absolutely love reading everyone's
insights, comments and thoughts. Thanks to everyone for sharing their
knowledge. I wish I was aware of this list when we originally saw the "white
falcon". Maybe we could have solved this mystery then.

Paul Jaussi
Sherwood, OR




On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:56 PM, M & R Campbell <campbell at peak.org> wrote:

>  Because I didn't get to watch it for more than a few seconds, and
> because I don't trust snapshot identifications, I thought I ought to
> describe what I saw of the bird that I saw.
>
> About 11:00 this morning here in Peoria, I spotted something white flying
> behind some short trees 250 yards to the northeast.  I followed it with my
> binocs as it flew out from behind the trees and headed southward.  It looked
> pure white, and, from the size of it, my first thought was Snowy Owl, but
> the wings seemed too pointed.  It flew without much effort at about treetop
> height--30 ft--and its jizz was of a raptor with a small head and thick
> neck.  It was directly east of me, and not more than 180 yards away, when I
> decided that it would look like a large falcon if only it weren't white.  It
> disappeared behind trees and haze a couple hundred yards and a few seconds
> later.  In all, I watched it for about a quarter mile, but for only a few
> seconds.  The sun was shining at the time, but I wasn't able to pick up any
> color beside white, so my ID is based mostly on the bird's shape and
> apparent size as well as its color.  If the bird had been gray instead of
> white, I think I would have put it down as a probable Prairie Falcon.  I
> can't think of anything that I could have mistaken for a white Gyr, but as
> Sibley says "unmistakable, but beware..."
>
>
> David Irons recently advertised the Brownsville CBC by describing central
> Linn County as "raptor alley."  I occurs to me now that a Gyrfalcon would
> be the 17th species of raptor that I've seen between the Willamette River
> and the Brownsville foothills--in this year alone.  I'm not sure that we
> have more raptors per acre, but you can see a long way across the grass
> fields.
>
>
> Randy Campbell
>
> Peoria
>
>
> Oh, yeah:  I was taking a walk at the time.
>
>
>
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