[mou] Dakota Co. Gyrfalcon still there.

[Dennis/Barbara Martin]

Its amazing how much this bird moves around.  We had looked for the gyr
since 2:30 or so without success and finally about 4:00 PM we saw geese and
ducks moving out of the river and heading south to feed.  We decided to
follow then and see if the gyr showed up.  Just south of Vermillion they
came down in fields east and west of Fischer Ave.  This is 6 miles south of
the golf course.  To the east of Fischer and just north of 200th the Gyr
came in flying around the whole area seemingly casing out the terrain.  This
was about 4:50.  After a while it landed on a irrigation rig not far from us
in very neat scope view for some 15 minutes or so.  It then appeared to look
over the dinner menu before flying into the mallards on the ground at a very
high rate of speed.  It went behind a small hill before hitting the mallard
it was right behind so we do not know if it was successful.

Of interest the flocks of waterfowl also had Snow Goose and a dimunitive
Ross's Goose in with the mallards and Canada Geese.

Dennis and Barbara Martin
dbmartin@skypoint.com