Tammy and I went for a walk at Nisqually today. Since we decided not to
bring the camera, we had our best sighting of merlins on the northern
section of the dike trail. One of them perched in a tree about 30 feet from
us and bobbed its head as it checked us out for what seemed like 5 minutes.
It was very photogenic and the lighting was perfect for a picture (but no
camera). It seemed to be trying to figure out how to snatch the clif-bar
that Tammy was eating. After a few minutes of this, a crow decided to harass
the merlin and chased it to a new tree about 100 feet down the trail. The
merlin then tried attack the crow, then the crow came back and chased the
merlin a little further. This continued for few more minutes until the
merlin disappeared from our view.

Greg Pelletier
Olympia, WA
greg at halcyon.com