White gyrfalcon
 

Good evening,

Here is a short clip of some footage I shot last week at a place we call the ridge, it over looks a 225 square mile lake, frozen at present.

do you know the name of the toon I put behind it?? It is kind of suitable if you know the words in spanish.

Hi Dale, the toon you use in the clip is "Vaja con dios my darling..." I think its an old sailor song.

Is this a place where you are putting out food or was you on right place to the right time?

Fascinating footage (forget it ... I'm half-way through writing the lyrics), Dale. I like the guitars too ...

Gyrfalcons are rare in western Europe; Finland and Sweden provided Dick Forsman with super stills of their wing patterns during flight 15 years ago but this is my first glimpse of their table manners. Canada used to have some as well. Where did you capture this fine study please and how?

Brendan,

Canada has lots of gyrfalcons. They follow the hordes of migrant ducks down from the north. We get opportunities to film them when they arrive here. You can watch the flocks of ducks and get opportunities to photograph them when they kill one. They are relatively tame and you can drive up within 50 to 75 yards of them and shoot, sometimes closer if they are real hungry. Step out of the vehicle and they are gone! As the ducks leave some of them stay and feed on the native grouse population or whatever they can find. The females actually kill geese once the ducks clear off. A ross's goose or juvinile snow goose are pretty small. The gyrs are very fast eaters and are always watching around them for eagles and other predators. when it gets realcold here they have to eat fast or the meal freezes underneath them before they are finished.
I actually saw a gyr chasing the pigeon population in the city of "Moose Jaw" last sunday. We also watched an immature black gyrfalcon Saturday morning but it was in a position we could not film!!
White gyrs are not that common I have seen about 10 in the last 30 years.

I shot it with the standard 20x lens and a 1.6 plex.

Great footage, I like it. Never have seen one in person, and this is the first video of one that I have seen, other than some nature show on the tube. What camera did you use?

Don,

I used my xl2 with the standard 20x lens for it and Ironicly it was the last footage i shot and now I have an issue (posted in the xl2 forum). Out comes my gl2, a camera I firmly love and use regularly. For quick point and shoot stuff I prefer the gl2.

Dale,

GL2 (XM2) is all (and not much at that) I know about but I'll be on to you about that at other times.

Before this topic melts away I am curious to know, in my ignorance of Spanish and having failed to track down the lyrics of Vaya con dios, what your connection is between that ballad and a gyrfalcon feeding ... all I can think of is ... feathers - guitars - plucking, but that's got nothing to do with the lyrics so fill me in or at least send me your latest recording ...

brendan,

Gyrfalcons love ptarmagin and grouse, he is humming the tune as he eats I suspect, or at least I would (perhaps a bit of personification).