That reminds me, earlier this summer, right in the middle of dinner on the
porch, a flock of robins shooed a raptor out of our horse chestnut tree,
maybe thirty feet from the table where we were eating. It flew off in a
hurry, so I didn't get much of a chance to examine it. It looked to me like
a small, grayish falcon with a barred underside on its tail--Merlin?

Whatever it was, it shocked the heck out of the family. Between that, and
all the squirrels, and the newly-arrived Spotted Towhees, and the young
raccoon that took up residence in the yard earlier in the summer, our little
urban backyard is turning into quite a wildlife park!

--Nick Pharris
Olympia, WA