Rare sighting in North Jersey: world's largest falcon

For New Jersey birders, it was the biggest news since a pink-footed goose made its Garden State debut in Washington Township six years ago. Since Jan. 21, a rare gyrfalcon – the largest falcon in the world – has been appearing almost daily at the State Line Lookout in Alpine.

“The last time you had a chance of seeing a gyrfalcon in New Jersey was 27 years ago in Sandy Hook, so this is a pretty big deal,” said Bill Boyle, author of “The Birds of New Jersey” and a leading expert on state birds. “The last one seen in Bergen County was in March 1950, in East Rutherford.”

According to Boyle, there have only been 19 previous confirmed sightings of a gyrfalcon ever in New Jersey, and half of those were in the 1970s and 1980s. Although one was seen two years ago at Sandy Hook, it was a brief fly-by.

Boyle characterized the dynamic raptor, roughly the size of a female red-tailed hawk, as “an Arctic rarity that seldom comes this far south anymore.”

The bird was discovered near the lookout by birder Mike Girone of West Orange, who said his “heart was racing and head was spinning” when he realized the raptor he had photographed that Saturday afternoon was a gyrfalcon and not one of the local peregrine falcons.

Birders have made a beeline to State Line every day since then, filling the lookout’s ample parking lot this past Saturday. That kind of turnout is typical on a beautiful fall weekend when the changing foliage is spectacular and raptors are streaming by the hawk watch on their way south, but not on a cold, cloudy Saturday in late January.

Likely sightings of the bird have been reported as recently as Sunday.

Monday at lunchtime, nearly two dozen birders were scattered along the lookout atop the Hudson River Palisades – binoculars, high-powered telescopes and long-lens digital cameras at the ready.

Although plenty of vultures and an occasional raven flew past, the gyrfalcon apparently took the day off, much to the disappointment of Garry Annibal of Montville and the other birders.

Annibal said he had also tried for the bird the previous Monday: “A birder from Pennsylvania and I spent a couple hours waiting in the rain, with no luck then either.”

Contrast that to a couple of other days last week, when the gyrfalcon occasionally perched on a nearby branch for 20 minutes or more, to the delight of the birders on hand.

Annibal remains undaunted. If the bird is reported again, he plans to try a third time if his schedule allows. “I’ve never seen a gyrfalcon, so it would be a lifer,” he said. “A gyrfalcon is a bird of the wild far north, and the fact that it made it all the way down here is amazing.”

Judy Cinquina of Upper Saddle River saw the gyrfalcon fly across the Hudson on Friday but returned Monday in hopes of a better look: “You usually have to go to Alaska to see it – or Siberia or the top of the world.”

What’s been good for birders has been good for the lookout’s small restaurant as well. “Business has been pretty solid, especially for this time of year,” said assistant manager William Fronheiser. “We've gotten a lot of people who came here just to see the bird.”

Birders on Monday voiced some differences of opinion on how to say the bird’s name. Although bird expert Boyle says it’s pronounced JEER-falcon, folks at the lookout on Monday said it their own way.

Craig Schroeder of Waldwick, growing a bit impatient as he waited for the gyrfalcon, said he pronounced it “Damn bird.”

Frank Muscara of Paterson, who got skunked both on Sunday and Monday, said the bird’s name with chagrin: “Grrrr-falcon.”

Will the elusive raptor return? Impossible to say. But if you’re a cold-weather super-sized falcon, the next best thing to the Arctic might be a town called Alpine.

Jim Wright’s column “The Bird Watcher” appears every other Thursday in The Record.