ML609313801

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

*rare; juvenile seen flying into Hutchinson Hill from the SW while we were at Sea Lion Neck not long after the Western Tanager. After initially recognizing it as a very suspiciously long-winged and somewhat small falcon from a distance, we followed it closely as it made four separate stoops into the cut at Hutchinson Hill, no doubt after the Snow Buntings parked on our feeder system. When we noticed after the fourth try that it never reappeared, we knew it had to be resting inside the cut. We expeditiously moved to Hutchinson Hill and started cautiously approaching the cut when we kicked up what ended up being the Warbling Vireo. We tried to very quickly pop the vireo again but failed and then quickly turned our attention back to the cut and saw the falcon resting on our feeder system! It jumped off of the alder branch and made several nice passes over us before heading back off towards the southwest. We knew we needed to turn our attention back to the vireo. On the first sweep of the east flank of Hutch we didn't find the vireo, but instead a Rustic Bunting! Ultimately, we nailed the Warbling Vireo on another pass. A very fun sequence of birds coming at us from both sides. Birding chaos on St. Paul Island at its best.

Technical information

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2796 pixels x 1864 pixels

Original file size

410.15 KB