Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 17:35:43 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Wilkerson, Jordan T." Subject: FW: Unknown Seneca Rocks [WV] Bird MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" MDOsprey, So this isn't MD, but it is still a valid ID question for more experienced birders. Below, is my email to the WV bird alert from this past weekend. We are stumped, so any ID suggestions will help. Jordan, Cloverly, MD -----Original Message----- From: Wilkerson, Jordan T. Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 5:27 PM To: 'zelig88@aol.com' Subject: Unknown Seneca Rocks Bird Hello, I was rock climbing at Seneca Rocks on Friday evening. September 29th, 2000. My wife and I returned over the foot bridge from the rocks and entered the parking lot at dusk, so it was difficult to see much more than shape and size. As we entered the parking lot a very large bird passed directly over us about 50 feet off the ground. We raced for the car and grabbed the bins, but the bird was already flying away toward the river valley that parallels Seneca Rocks. Since it was almost dark, the only solid points to discuss are the size and shape. This was a large bird; on the order of a large raptor. My initial knee-jerk first impression, considering the size and how dark it seemed, was Raven. However, my attention turned to the wing shape. The wings were very pointed like that of a Falcon, not an Accipiter, and the tail seemed long. The bird was in a general glide across the parking lot, so we never saw it flap. As we reached the car and grabbed the binoculars to get a 3-second look at the bird, we noticed some lighter facial marks and some not-so-dark mottling on the birds' side. The bird then disappeared and was not found again that evening or the next morning. One distinctive image in my head was the length of the wings. Before it passed over our head. It flew directly toward us. The primaries were very long and straight. The secondaries had a very heavy curve to them; both from a head-on view (cupping the wind) and from directly underneath (similar to the black vultures curved secondaries). This bird did not teeter at all, but also didn't seem to loose much altitude in the still air while it glided past without flapping. There was no sound as it passed overhead. After searching for the bird for about 15 minutes or so we heard an unusual loud screeching call. Obviously loud enough to be a raptor, so we tracked it down. From the bridge that runs between the new visitor center and the old parking lot, we had an excellent view of an immature Great Horned Owl. He was definitely the one making the horrific call (which we have recorded on an mpg file with a digital camera if you're interested). However, when this owl flew, he was noticeable smaller and did not have the pointed wings. Also, this was 15-20 minutes later and we could still make out decent color variations in this owls plumage, but the original unidentified bird in slightly better light was generally dark. So the question is obviously: "What the heck was that?!" This bird seemed larger than a Peregrine, and the markings on the face (although difficult to make out in the poor light) did not give us the impression of a Peregrine face. So, there aren't too many options. For lack of a better one, what about a dark Gyrfalcon? Have there ever been any reports of such this far south (ever!)? There have been some recent storms that pushed through, but were they enough? Have there been any other reports of this bird around the area or further north as it makes its way home? I shouldn't tell you that we looked up kites just to be sure... What else? More likely we were fooled by a bird with its wings in a particular configuration that we are unfamiliar with. Have you ever seen a Raven with pointed primaries as he glides? Any help will be appreciated. We can't identify them all, but experience builds expertise. Thanks, Jordan ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================