As the group was gathering for my first day trip of our late winter/early spring schedule of Chicago-area trips, I was very hopeful for a good day of gulling. Conditions were good—not too cold, but with ice in the harbors for gulls to perch on. From the parking lot, I could see a large group of gulls already gathered on the ice. It was windy, but luckily the gulls were sitting in a place where we could take shelter from the wind while we studied them.
But then a Bald Eagle flew over and the gulls scattered. Even though they gradually drifted back, diversity was low. We certainly got good studies of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls of various ages, the only other gull was a single adult Iceland (Thayer’s) Gull that didn’t stick around for all that long. We moved on to another harbor nearby, where there were also lots of gulls for us to look through and study.
We were chumming and studying the many gulls, when one member of the group said “There’s a raptor flying in. It landed!” Indeed, I peeked through my bins and saw a gray raptor on a utility pole across the harbor. I rushed to my scope, aimed it at the raptor, and shouted “GYRFALCON!!”
We quickly forgot about gulls. Gyrfalcon is a real rarity in Illinois and is famous for being elusive when one does show up. It’s a huge arctic falcon, presumably hanging around this area hunting ducks and maybe gulls, too. I quickly put the word out to the birding community and just a few minutes later birders were showing up. The bird stayed around all day, showing off for crowds of birding admirers.
Our Gull Field Workshop turned into an Admire the Gyrfalcon trip, but nobody minded. It was a lifer for most people in the group (and a lifer for Red Hill Birding!) and a thrilling way to start off our latest series of scheduled trips.
How it looked when we first saw it sitting on a utility pole across the harbor (Photo by Josh Engel)
