Subject: Re: Raptor Sightings
Date: Nov 30 16:33:17 1998
From: Don Baccus - dhogaza at pacifier.com


At 04:36 PM 11/30/98 -0800, Kelly Mcallister wrote:

> What
>surprised me as I looked through the scope was a good-sized blotch
>of blood on the bird's lower breast. The falcon was quite perky and
>healthy looking so I can only conclude that it had killed something,
>probably finished eating just before flying to my location. I would
>not have thought that this much blood in this location was likely to
>result from normal Merlin feeding behavior.

When visiting some raptor bander friends a few years ago, they had
a merlin come into their mistnets that had a headless Townsend's
warbler in its talons. It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination
to visualize blood getting on a merlin's breast if it decapitates
a small bird that's still alive, though this particular merlin didn't
have any blood on its breast.



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
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