Hello everyone! Yesterday at Hawk Ridge, I got to hold and release a Gyrfalcon, and boy was she huge! In all birds of prey, the female is larger than the male. The girth and density of holding that bird was just, wow... I was crying inside while holding her, and could not believe how strong and pretty she was. Keep an eye out for rarities with this fantastic early-October cold front moving through :) Aside from the rarer Swainson's Hawk and Red-shouldered Hawk, we had every regular raptor species at the ridge yesterday, including an osprey that Karl Bardon found towards the end of the day! Here's a link to my Hawk Ridge photos so far. There is a Northern Goshawk photo in there, as well as the photo of a flying Peregrine Falcon carrying/potentially eating a Sharp-shinned Hawk. http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/hawk_ridge_2009_gallery Also one other little note, I'm going to be counting raptors in Veracruz this spring. I can't wait!!! Hope all of you are doing great! Good birdwatching, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN [log in to unmask] www.pbase.com/birdfedr ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html