Last Thursday we saw what was probably the same female merlin
reported by Yvonne on the road in to Spencer Island. Were driving
away, just about at the riverside park when a crow and a large, dark,
merlin came tussling by right at windshield hieight. Pulled over and
watched Ms. merlin as she swooped 8 crows that were sitting in the
tops of park trees. The merlin would strafe a crow, which would just
duck, and on some of the passes one of the unstrafed crows would
take off and give chase. The merlin and crow would fly out over the
river, losing altitude, while twisting and boxing. The merlin was
always the one to "chicken out" before hitting the water, and would
climb to an altitude of about 80 feet before swooping another treetop
crow. Finally, the merlin headed for Spencer.

On Sunday I watched a similar display at Nisqually W.R., this time
between another dark merlin and a female kestral. Many merlin stoops,
some tussling with the kestral, but no harm done. The Kestral kept
her tree, and the merlin broke off in one of her swoops and took out
across the prairie-- apparently to torment a harrier.

Best show of last Thursday, however, was at Montlake fill. There is a
large, regular, immature female Cooper's hawk thereabouts. We were
walking on the trail close to the west side of the fill when we
noticed Coop on a low bush, lookin down. A large, male, pheasant ran
out from the bush and hunkered down in the tall grass right at the
edge of the blackberries. The Coop couldn't resist a chase, but also
seemed to lose sight of the pheasant as it froze (in plain view). We
got several minutes of Coop flitting from bush to bush to blackberry
perch, and then to the ground. She made a couple of dashes in to the
blackberrys, and hopped and searched all around in the grass, never
more than a few feet from the pheasant. He never moved, she gave up.
What would she have done if she caught it?
Jerry Broadus
P.O. Box 249
Puyallup, WA. 98371