News: Other Falcons

[RCF]

Scarborough Gyrfalcon

   There are some great photos of the white morph gyrfalcon at the link below. 

http://www.paulreeves.ca/html/nature/birds/gyrfalcon.html

[RCF]

Nice story RCF - thanks for finding & posting it!

Could just be a bird migrating through, maybe the long way around, but they do go south.  In this part of the continent Gyrs migrate to South Dakota.  Island Girl the tundra peregrine migrated right by Sault Ste Marie on her way south to Chile ... a bit further west but she was going a whole lot further south as well ...

 

[The Peregrine Chick]

Exhausted kestrel hitches ride back to shore on sailor's shoulder after flying 25 miles out to sea

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230410/Exhausted-kestrel-hitches-ride-shore-sailors-shoulder-flying-25-miles-sea.html#ixzz2C2hhXcAh


 

This is something like Island Girl this year over the Gulf of Mexico - she hitched a ride as well on a northbound ship this fall.  Love that everyone has a camera these days, so many more chances to get photos of these occurrences!

[The Peregrine Chick]

Nice story RCF - thanks for finding & posting it!

Could just be a bird migrating through, maybe the long way around, but they do go south.  In this part of the continent Gyrs migrate to South Dakota.  Island Girl the tundra peregrine migrated right by Sault Ste Marie on her way south to Chile ... a bit further west but she was going a whole lot further south as well ...

[RCF]

Update on Scarborough Gyrfalcon from BCAW.

November 12, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Frank Butson Reports:

I was up to check this bird out a few times in the past several days. It is thriving, hunting pigeons at the mall/plazza. It catches 2-3 each day, so is eating very well. It is in very good health(to see it at least). It has some local competition, with a Coopers Hawk that hunts the same pigeons, a local Redtailed Hawk that hunts the hydro field just north of the plaza and apparently a Peregrine Falcon who it had a tussle with on Sunday afternoon.

Leslie provided this account of the interactions of the Peregrine and the Gyrfalcon.

http://www.peregrinefalcon-bcaw.net/viewtopic.php?p=210869#p210869

[RCF]

Rare white falcon spotted at Scarborough shopping mall

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1286192--rare-white-falcon-spotted-at-scarborough-shopping-mall

[RCF]

Exhausted kestrel hitches ride back to shore on sailor's shoulder after flying 25 miles out to sea

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230410/Exhausted-kestrel-hitches-ride-shore-sailors-shoulder-flying-25-miles-sea.html#ixzz2C2hhXcAh


 

[Kinderchick]

Heart warming story of the Merlin but very sad ending. Sounds like what similarly might have happened to our Maya in Brandon - starvation & dehydration. The good news is that so many people appreciated and valued the life of little "Blue Bomber".

[noellat]

It is sad.  I'm glad he was in a safe place for his last few days.   :'(I now realize how hard it must be for these young birds to get and maintain their survivor skills

[Doreen]

Very sad! 

[The Peregrine Chick]

Winnipeg Free Press photo

[Jazzerkins]

Very sad

[GCG]

Printed in the Winnipeg Free Press, today, Saturday, August 25, 2012

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/a-fitting-symbol--of-a-trying-season-167414215.html

 

[noellat]

Thanks all for your answers and also to RCF for showing the pictures.  I didn't know how to post them.

[dupre501]

Dupre 501 On Global news yesterday they showed a bird that was dive bombing the crowd at the Bomber game on Thursday.  This bird looks like a peregrine to me.  He/she remained at the stadium for the whole game and is pictured very close to people in the stands.  Can you look at the pictures and let me know if it was one of our peregrines.
.  You can see the pictures if you go the Global Winnipeg. com and then to the weather for August 17.  The weather girl invites people to send in their pictures which are shown at the end of her weather spiel.  So you will have to listen to a few minutes of old weather till the pictures are shown.  Also behavior seems a little odd since since peregrines aren't crazy about people.  thanks

WOW! Quite amazing to see a wild bird perched so close to people. And these are some good shots.

As Dennis pointed out, the darkness of the mylar bar is missing on the cheek. But now we can see the similarity in overall colouring that a merlin has with the peregrine. It could be very easy to miss identify the bird if there were only a brief glimpse.