Finley Refuge Sightings

[highdese...@gmail.com]

Many many swans and geese at the pond on Bruce Road yesterday.  We spotted an adult Golden Eagle circling over the visitor center area.  There was a huge flock of Cackling Geese in a field not far from the Elk viewing area.  While we watched, a falcon flew over us and over the field of geese.  The geese were so noisy until the falcon flew over, then all was quiet.  It flew low along the tree line and out of our sight.  Suddenly, the geese rose up in such confusion, flying every which way, and then we saw the falcon at the rear of a flock and it took a goose right out of the air and down they went behind a rise in the field.

Unfortunately we could not go out into the field and identify the type of falcon but I have asked a birder friend of mine if a Peregrine was able to take a Cackler and he said yes.  Could it have been an Gyr Falcon?  Possibly, but we will never know.

There was a small herd of Elk at the viewing area with several smaller bulls and one very large bull and we also saw a Prairie Falcon fly down into the grass from a utility pole and grab a very large snake and fly off into some trees with it on Finley Refuge Road.

=Carol and Jim Hiler

N. Albany