I lucked out this afternoon and happened upon Jeff, Malcolm and Jackie (all from PA) as they were just about to follow the Gyr which had just taken to flight.
In short, the Gyr was viewable from this location: Gilgo Beach, Babylon, NY 11702 We caught up with a falcon which turned out to be one of the peregrines perched on an osprey platform. Just as the other three observers were about to leave, I looked back at the "big square platform" which is basically directly across from the parking lot -- it looks almost like a bandstand with no sides in the middle of the wetlands -- and as others have described, the bird almost magically appeared. It was large, bulky and long tailed. I yelled to the others and it was their turn to be lucky as this bird turn out to be the Gyrfalcon. We were then treated to quite a show as, a few minutes later, the Gyr took off across the flats, flying to the west within several feet of the ground, then rising up over the low treeline and then back down again. At one point it wheeled around giving us a great view of its light underside. Jackie was able to continue to follow it as it appeared to knock down and grab, in the wing, some species of waterfowl. When it finally landed on the platform nearest us, displacing the peregrine, it did not have the duck. We were, however, given great views of the bird from about 300 yds., as it sat with its back to us and fended off the diving peregrine. I got one photo of the stand off http://www.flickr.com/photos/31219780@N03/ What a beautiful bird! Thanks to all for posting continued updates. Good luck if you go. Dave Jordet Staten Island -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
