Hello, Tweeters,

This morning I noticed that there were no birds in my bird feeders. Due to
the heavy rains, perhaps? Noooooooooooooo.........a Merlin was perching on
one of the pasture T-posts, preening a bit, watching for breakfast. He was
there for quite some time, stretching and tidying up in the rain. He was
missing a right wing primary. He sat waiting for dumb birds to show up...none
did...when suddenly he took off like a rocket. I waited to see him go for a
bird I'd not seen but no! A Red-Tailed Hawk attacked him.
It looked like a B-52 going for an F-16, and at about those speeds, to boot.
Mr. Merlin bounced around in front of the Red-Tailed and then fled with a
cocky "nyah nyah you can't catch me" flick of wings. The Red-Tailed (perhaps
my Brunhilde) kept going onto Glacial Heritage. Seeing this certainly put a
nice end to my birding year!

Michelle
MBlanchrd at aol.com
Oly, WA