Gyrfalcon - what a treat!

Two days ago, on a last-minute decision to drive NW of Calgary, I was so lucky to come across this beautiful Gyrfalcon. I didn't notice it in time to stop closer, so I ended up taking some fully zoomed (later, heavily cropped) shots of it way down the road. I wasn't sure what it was until I got home to my bird book and Google, but then reckoned it could be a Gyrfalcon. Thanks to friend, Tony, a superb birder who puts up with my occasional bird ID questions, I now know that it is, indeed, a Gyrfalcon. A handful of times over the last few years, I have been out with various friends and someone will call out "Gyrfalcon" and I see a fast-flying "shape" flying high in the sky, but this is the first time I've really "seen" one. About 45 minutes later, I was staring into the eyes of a beautiful Great Gray Owl : ) All this, plus sunshine - made a great afternoon on 22 March 2013.

"The largest falcon in the world, the Gyrfalcon breeds in arctic and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere. It preys mostly on large birds, pursuing them in breathtakingly fast and powerful flight .... May range from nearly pure white to dark gray to black, with variable barring and streaking; most are gray." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/gyrfalcon/id

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrfalcon