Subject: interesting way to start the day -- unless you're the pigeon
Date: Mar 20 10:20:05 2001
From: Deborah Wisti-Peterson - nyneve at u.washington.edu



hello tweets,

this morning, i had the good fortune to see quite a spectacle as i
approached my building on campus. i arrived just after a merlin had
successfully brought down a pigeon, which was fat and slow from food
supplied by my lab.

all hell broke loose as the merlin perched in a nearby tree, crows
flying around, shrieking, and about a dozen chickadees standing on
the very tippy-tops of fir trees, shouting "DEE DEE DEE DEE!" the
merlin made a faint "tittering" call as i stood under the tree,
looking up at the chocolate-brown merlin from a mere 15-20 feet away.
the crows seemed intimidated by my close presence and left to sit on
the roof of the next-door building, where they continued shrieking in
raucous voices.

there was fresh blood on the sidewalk and the dead pigeon was pushed
into the bushes near the loading dock, where i hope the merlin can find
it (before the crows do). it was really impressive to see how much
bigger the pigeon was than the merlin.

has anyone ever seen a merlin take prey so large?

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson, PhD Candidate nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://students.washington.edu/~nyneve/
Love the creator? Then protect the creation.