David,

The upturned wingtips reminds me of a common Red-tail flying profile and 
leusitic birds can be almost entirely white. I am hoping you saw a Gyr and 
that it hangs around for the xmas holidays when I might be able to get up to 
Cumberland..... did you note any tail markings or patterns? what about the 
patagials???





William Leigh
Bridgewater VA






>From: David Yeany II <>
>Reply-To: David Yeany II <>
>To: 
>Subject: [MDOSPREY] Gyrfalcon - Cumberland, MD
>Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 21:23:09 -0500
>
>As crazy as it sounds, I am fairly certain that I observed a white
>morph Gyrfalcon over the spray fields at the North Branch of the C&O
>Canal tonight around 4:40PM. My hopes were to find the Short-eared
>Owls posted earlier. However, I found 4 Northern Harriers (2 female, 2
>male) and what I believe was a Gyrfalcon.  It was about 4:40PM and
>just after viewing the four Harriers at once, that I spotted a large
>raptor spiraling up by itself about 400 meters to my Northwest (right)
>as I faced the spray fields.  My initial impression was a large
>Buteo-like raptor.  As I watched the bird spiral upward, it became
>apparent that it was quite pale overall.  The tail and wings were
>broad and the body was tubular, tapering toward the tail.  The wings
>were long and had a rounded, pointed ness to their tips. The tail was
>not long, but fanned and broad.  The bird appeared completely white
>underneath with no sign of dark markings of any kind, except dark
>edging of the wingtips. The upper side of the bird was
>whitish/grayish, but not as bright white as underneath.  This
>coloration was clearly uniform above, except the edges of the
>outermost primaries were again black. While soaring, its wings
>appeared flat and sometimes showing a minute dihedral with
>ever-so-slightly upturned wing tips.  The few flaps it did give were
>quite stiff.  Any comments are welcomed and I will be submitting a
>report to Phil Davis.  As you can imagine, this was quite an exciting
>observation to have.
>
>Good birding!
>--
>David Yeany II
>109.5 Pennsylvania Ave
>Cumberland, MD 21502
>Cell: (814) 221-4361
>