Alaska species accounts, part 1, v4403
Page 409
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
T. Code 1958 Falco rusticolus 3 August Okfjilak Lake At 0955 I looked up from camp toward the high outcrop of rugged quartzite about 1/4 mile south of the lake just in time to see a very light colored gyrfalcon fly off one of the pinnacles and work its way along the wall of the valley toward camp. It alighted on an outcrop about 200 yds away, and I watched it three 7x50 liners for several minutes. From that distance the bird appeared quite white but with definite dark markings on the feathers. Later, however, I found a molted tail feather, and it is a light whitish gray - not the pure white of the candicans type. At 1630 this bird, now recognized as a jeshin by its size, was seen flying around in the same area as this morning. It was being followed closely in the air by a food begging juvenile much larger than it and of the clark gray shade. Then a large adult 9 of the blue-gray type flew out from a high pinnacle and circled over the valley uttering hoarse, dog-like cacks. A little later in the day Bill Malcom saw the light jeshin carrying something in its talons.