Gyr and Hybrids

 

As yet I have never seen a wild Gyr, I didn’t catch up with the Devon Berry Head birds years ago and going to see one in Iceland, is likely the next step on the radar for the future to see this Falcon in the wild.

Over the years I have seen various escaped Falconers birds however, pure species and a mixture of hybrids that more often than not, seemed to be attracted to established Peregrine sites, indeed 95% of my viewed escapees have been at nest sites for peregrines. There is no doubt that they are attracted to them, for whatever reason, it could be to challenge an established pair like wild single Peregrines do. Additionally given the density of Peregrines now in London, it could be that it is inevitable that any escaped Falconry birds, pure or hybrid will bump into established peregrine pairs.

Last week this happened again, in this case it was a ringed full adult white female Gyr, escaped Falconer’s bird or not, she was a magnificent looking beast of a bird who came out of nowhere and was immediately set upon by both Peregrines. Over the course of 10 minutes, the pair, in particular the female peregrine consistently persisted in numerous attacks, cast up and dives, obviously going for a headshot or a wing.

The Gyr defended itself well and at one point sought relief by landing on a building, both Peregrines also landed nearby and waited, when the Gyr eventually flew again, both then resumed the mobbing.

After a short while both peregrines returned no doubt having escorted it out of their territory.

Remarkably, having now had contact with the owner, who lost a Gyr Falcon from North London on January 9th, having looked at photos he/she has confirmed that it is not there bird! This begs the question, how many out there, full species of hybrid escapees, definitely 2 from this scenario, have since been told of 2 others wandering round Suffolk, no doubt there are more.

The issue is always going to be that one of these birds, muscles in on a pair, or pairs with a wild Peregrine and the gene pool then becomes effected.

If I recall correctly, this happened on the South Coast a whiles back where a Falconers bird, possibly a hybrid paired with a wild peregrine, from this I understand that the Falconry bird was then euthanized by the power that be.

A good few years back now I actually had 2 hybrids ‘find’ each other and were paired so much so, that they adopted a National Grid Gasometer, now gone, and were actively looking for a nest site.

One bird was an obvious Merlin/Peregrine type hybrid, this was the male as he displayed for all he was worth, to the female who was a Gyr type hybrid. Having Merlin blood and speed/agility, his pairing displays to the female were something to see.

I often wonder what happened to them both as it’s been a few years since I saw them.