I'm surprised no one has reported the bird on OBOL. It was about 3 miles north
of BSNWR along Livemore Rd. and in the open tundra-like fields around the area.
I was looking for flocks of Pipits and Horned Larks when I ran into some
birders who reported the bird in the area, so I kept a watch on any raptors
that came around as the birders went off past Perrydale on the chanse. When I
saw two N. Harriers harrying another bird it was the Gyr and it landed less
than a hundred yards from where I was parked, it was on a goose kill, it turned
out. Shortly after, the flock of birders turned up. It looks like a dark morph
as illustrated in Sibley - an overall dingy gray-brown with paler speckles.
Photos.
Shortly before the Gyr turned-up, I saw a large raptor with underside wing
markings I wasn't familiar with. With no good view and no help from my in-hand
reference, I can't even speculate as to what it might have been. My memory says
that it had contrasty dark and light areas of about equal size and that's all.
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