[obol] more on the Brownsmead white raptor
- From: Jeff Fleischer <raptorrunner97321@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2013 15:52:29 -0800 (PST)
Hi Everybody,
Jeff St Clair asked me to post this response to questions about his reporting
of a light phased Gyrfalcon yesterday. I can guarantee right now that I will
NOT be demoting Jeff off the A Team, he is too valuable a participant in the
Winter Raptor Project !! :) Besides, if I relegate him to counting American
Kestrels along 99W, it would be like putting a fox in a chicken coop :)
Anyway, I feel that he has a pretty good case for his original determination
and I will let all of you decide in your own mind what he really saw :)
Jeff Fleischer
Albany
Project Coordinator
Winter Raptor Survey Project
East Cascades Audubon Society - Bend, OR
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Jeffrey St Clair <sitka@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Jeff Fleischer <raptorrunner97321@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, March 3, 2013 2:18 PM
Subject: Favor? Can you post to Oregon Birds It keeps Kicking It back to me
Sibley the Magnificent admonishes us never to foolishly identify an "albino
redtailed hawk" for a light phased gyrfalcon. You can imagine my mortification
at having made this unpardonable transgression yesterday morning along the
lower Columbia while conducting the winter raptor survey for East Cascades
Audubon.
But did I?
Let's recount: at about 10 AM I was approaching at my normal sluggish pace the
intersection of Rudat Road and Gerttula Lane north of Brownsmead when a speck
of white in a distant cottonwood caught my eye. I pulled the Subaru into
Gerttulla and glassed the tree. White raptor. I took out my scope: white
raptor, large as a big redtail, faint, grayish markings on head, more
noticeable streaking on lower breast. Two birders were parked nearby, looking
at the pair of RSHA that have been hanging out here all winter. They were down
from Victoria, looking for sun, I guess. One of them pointed toward the white
bird: Is that a kite? Bigger, I said.
About this time, the bird launched into flight. I looked at its finely-angled
wings and said, I'm thinking Gyr.
The die was cast.
Let me throw the first stones against my tentative identification.
1. I'm NOT a pro-fessional birder--just play one on the weekends.
2. I've mis-identified birds in the past (truth be told, I've even
mis-indentified my kids once or twice).
3. Light-phased Gyrs are very rare on the Left Coast, more common, when they
deign to descend southward, in the Great Lakes and Northeast.
4. A very white redtailed hawk has been seen in Brownsmead all winter. Let's
call this bird Peterson's Piebald.
5. Very white redtailed hawks are often misidentified as Gyrs by those who
really want to see a Gyr. I will confess to really wanting to see a Gyr this
year.
6. I was very far away from the bird, who I shall call the Rudat Raptor, when I
saw it: 400 yards probably, or longer than Tiger Woods can drive a golf ball.
The markings, such as they were, were very faint, even in the scope.
So, obviously, I could be wrong. Perhaps the odds swing that way.
So what, if anything, do I have going in my favor?
1. I've seen many light-phased Gyrs on Alaska's north slope, in ANWR and along
the Colville River in the NPR-A. I've also seen white and gray Gyrs near Fort
Prince of Wales north of Churchill, Manitoba, along Hudson Bay--though this is
the first light phased Gyr, if that's what it was, I've ever seen perched in a
tree.
2. I've seen Peterson's Piebald before, on his must-read blog, and in person,
even counted it as a RTHA on the January survey along Jackson Rd south of
Brownsmead.
3. The Rudat Raptor's markings were regular, almost thematic: grayish masking
near the eye, gray to black streaking on the belly. By contrast, the Piebold is
splotchy, reddish-brown or rusty. It's like the difference between an Ellsworth
Kelly painting and a Helen Frankenthaler.
4. When the bird took flight, it had the form of a falcon not a buteo.
5. I'm not a pro-fessional birder, which means my license can't be suspended
for making a bad call. The worst that can happen, I suppose, is that Jeff
Fleischer will demote me from the A-Team and send me back to counting AMKEs
along 99 W. But, hey, I like Kestrels.
So the Rudat Raptor could be a very white RTHA. It could be Peterson's Piebald.
It could even be an Albino Peregrine (if such freaks exist). But I cling to my
call of Gyr, perhaps foolishly, based on this premise: If it flies like a
falcon, even a big burly falcon, it's probably a falcon.
JSC
Fort George Brew Pub, Astoria
PS: It's time for Audubon or Oregon Wild to petition the managers of Ft Stevens
State Park to close off the south jetty to hikers, dogs and photographers while
Snowy Owls are present. Each time I've visited the snowies this year (six or
seven times) they have been harassed by hikers and photographers looking for a
"closer" shot. They have been flushed from the ground by dogs & hikers and
driven from their perches on logs, rocks and trees by photographers. These
birds are under enough stress. They deserve a break.
“More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path
leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us
pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” --Woody Allen
Jeffrey St Clair
sitka@xxxxxxxxxxx
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