Jerry,

And anyone else who would like to know I was referring to the 2 Vol edition
of "Handbook of North American Birds" Volumes 4 and 5. Vol 4 is the Diurnal
Raptors Par (1) and Volume 5 is Part 2 when I spoke of the Merlin and cache
of food. It is edited by Ralph S. Palmer and sponsored by the Smithsonian
Institute, Yale University Press.

I think that I also made a mistake in mentioning Taverner. It was the wrong
paper. Should be the above cited literature. When I wrote the last
transmission I was looking at both articles.

If anyone wants to obtain these books they are well worth it. Have used
them for years as reference litt. They are full of really good detailed
information on Raptors across NA. I can give the ISBN no. to anyone
interested.

Libor
-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Converse <sanjer at televar.com>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: February 12, 1998 10:00 AM
Subject: Re: Hungry Merlin


Hi Libor and Dawn

Thanks so much for this information. That thought crossed my mind, but
then I said--naaaa.

I assume "Taverner" is the title of a book. I will have to check it out.

Thanks again

Jerry and Sandy Converse
Grand Coulee, WA

Libor and Dawn Michalak wrote:
>
> I have in the past (in winter) seen a Merlin cache its food in a tree
branch
> crotch. The Merlin stuffed a rodent into a hole in a branch like
> Nuthatches. Merlins have been known to cache their food for lean
times. If
> its plentiful and easy to catch they will take it and hide the food in
a
> nearby "safe" tree. In Taverner he says that both the male and the
female
> cache their food. It doesn't matter what time of year it is either.
> Apparently the food (even after it is eaten partially) is stored for
safe
> keeping. In most cases it is the male which brings food to the
female. If
> she refuses the prey during the offering he takes it away and caches
it.
>
> One record he speaks of is a female that received food from a male.
She ate
> part of it and hid the rest. Later that day if he produced no food
for her
> she would go back and finish off the prey she stored. They tend to
cache
> their food (on average) about 50m from their aerie in breeding season
and
> seldom cache food in the same site during the breeding season for fear
that
> it will be stolen by Magpies and/or Crows. In winter they tend to
reuse the
> same sites.
>
> Libor
>
> \\\--.___ \\\--.___
> \_/ \_/
> \\\--.___ \\\--.___
> \_/ \_/
> " CHARMING"
> pieris at netidea.com
> =====================
> Libor and Dawn Michalak
> Nelson, BC