The Gyrfalcon Project had a successful Sunday here in western Alaska. With the help of our friend John Earthman, we found our second Gyrfalcon nest of the season.

Entering this nest was exciting. The nest itself is quite unlike our first, as it is a neat and tidy stick nest. I suspect it belonged to a Rough-legged Hawk in years past. Typical falcon nests are usually messy with whitewash.

I had a decent rappel to the nest, and when I reached the proper spot I tied off to conduct the data collection necessary for my study. After collecting all of the information I took a photo of the nest. I was very impressed by the aesthetics, and I think it is selfish of me to hold that image only to the experience and memory, and not share it with all those who are interested. So, if you’ve always wondered what a Gyrfalcon nest is like, wonder no more.

We’ll be hitting the search again this week, including conducting aerial surveys over a large area. I hope that by the end of the week we have a long list of occupied sites awaiting our attention. With two nests under our belt in the first two weeks on the ground, I feel pretty confident we will have a successful season full of nest entries. And the Gyrfalcon beat goes on.