Falconquest!

On Monday we woke to an inch of snow outside of our motel in Joseph, OR. Sarah and I drove here with two friends on Sunday hoping to find some northeast Oregon specialties including Bohemian Waxwings and Gyrfalcons.

After bundling up, we drove to the farm country west of town and quickly found a flock of medium-sized birds.

The light was bad, so it took us a few minutes to determine that they were, in fact, Bohemian based on the light marking on their wings.

After watching the waxwings, we drove by more farms and looked at many Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks.

Eventually, we found a long-tailed gray raptor on a utility pole.

 

Gyrfalcon! A lifer for the four of us. We also found a Prairie Falcon, a Merlin, and a couple of American Kestrels, giving us four falcons for the day.

 

With perfect weather and cooperative birds, our first winter trip to Wallowa County was a great success.