HI Everyone,
Today under virtually perfect viewing conditions, I completed another survey
here in Linn County for the East Cascades Audubon Society's Winter Raptor
Survey Project. The area covered today was south of Hwy 34, west of Hwy
99E/I-5, east of the Willamette River, and north of American Drive near Halsey.
I covered the 99 miles in a little over 8 hours and found the following birds:
Red-tailed Hawk 91American Kestrel 83Northern Harrier
26Bald Eagle 24 adults, 7 sub adultsRough-legged Hawk
12Peregrine Falcon 1Merlin 2UNID
FALCON 1Cooper's Hawk 2Short-eared Owl 19
The excitement of the day concerned the UNID Falcon. When I first found it
with my spotting scope at about 1/4 mile away perched in a tree, I said
"another Redtail" but in the same breath realized that its shape and posture
were not right for a Redtail and then in the same breath I thought oh no a
Gyrfalcon! The bird was noticeably larger that a Peregrine, at least at the
distance I was looking at, and only allowed about 10 seconds of perch time to
study before it took flight and made a very powerful long distance flight north
for a good 45 seconds as I followed it with my scope. I have had two
meaningful reports of a Gyr the last 4 or 5 weeks within a 3 mile radius of
where I saw this bird today ( east of McLagan Rd about half a mile north of
Bell Plain Rd ). I am 90 percent convinced that it was a Gyr but am going to
be conservative and call it an UNID large falcon, ugh! Wished it had been
closer to get better study. I might add that the fields in this area have lots
of standing water and there were hundreds of Mallards and Pintail ducks close
by which would make an ideal meal for a Gyrfalcon so maybe this bird will be
seen by others if any of you wish to try and relocate the bird. I saw it
perched in the treeline that runs north/south half way between McLagan and Hwy
99E.
After completion of the survey, I hoofed it over to the Bald Eagle roost just
before dark and was able to count 90 birds in the roost in the failing light.
I also got to watch 19 Short-eared Owls fly NW from south of the eagle roost
over McLagan Rd and into the big field north of Seward Dr where they continue
to hunt into the evening. At one point, I had 8 in my binocular view. Pretty
amazing to have this activity going on right now, hope more of you can enjoy it
soon :)
Jeff FleischerAlbany
