. and wibrating wings. One more to add: I once took my dog to an area
where I had often been with binoculars, and the presence of nesting
Merlins in the vicinity was signaled by one of them making false stoops on
the dog to warn it off. I removed the disturbance as fast as possible, but
not before the Merlin had made six or seven passes, to within a foot of
the dog's head, with its wing-feathers making a quite loud noise each time
it pulled out of the dive - a kind of "thrrrrrummmmm" sound. The noise was
probably not deliberate, just a function of the aerodynamics of reversing
its dive, but it was the noise that had the warning effect on the dog (the
stoops were usually from a little behind the offender). Interesting that
the birds never minded me, before or after that incident - humankind is
surely an infinitely worse predator on raptors and their nests than any
member of the dog family, wild or domestic.

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JAMES WEST | University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98103 | 206-543-4892