Winter Fest

Prairie Falcon

Prairie Falcon

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel ready for flight 

Gyrfalcon

Not a lot of wild birds to check out so for the fourth year in a row we attended the falconry exhibit, flight-contest, Winter Fest. An impressive array of birds put on quite a show, but the best was flying exhibition was Gyrfalcon. Gyrfalcons are the largest falcon in North America but are mostly found north of the border, but they occasionally make it into northern Utah according to one of the falconers present. We'll keep an eye out for one of these beauties next time we head up to Box Elder, Rich or Cache counties during winter. However, a quick check of the species on eBird showed no records in northern Utah and the individual sighted in St. George is likely an escapee. Utah Birds has recorded a handful of sightings in the past fifteen years making the chance of seeing one in the wild remote at best.