I have always found it interesting that the original name for the Merlin
was Pigeon Hawk.

Here is the prey list from A. C. Bent's account of the Merlin.

Food: T he pigeon hawk is mainly a bird eater. Dr. A. K. Fisher's (189Th)
report on the contents of 56 stomachs says that 2 contained poultry, 41
small birds, 2 mice, and 16 insects. The following birds
have been recorded in its food: Leach's petrel, green-winged teal,
woodcock, snipe,
sandpipers, Eskimo curlew, plovers, small domestic
chickens, California quail, ptarmigans, pigeons, doves, chimney and black
swifts, flickers, jays,
bobolink, meadowlark, blackbirds, gracldes, various
sparrows, waxwings, swallows, warblers, vireos, gnatcatchers, brown
creeper, nuthatches,
kinglets, pipit, robin, and thrushes. Other things listed
include pocket gophers, squirrels, mice, bats, toads, lizards, snakes,
dragonflies, butterflies,
moths, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, spiders,
crawflshes, scorpions, and caterpillars. That this little falcon is able to
catch such rapid fliers as
swifts and swallows, or such nimble insects as
dragonflies, speaks well for its powers of flight.

Jim

Jim Rosso
jrosso at mediaseek.com
MediaSeek Technologies a division of bigchalk.com
Bellevue, Washington
425- 451-1111 ext. 139



Deborah
Wisti-Peterson To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>, Deborah Wisti-Peterson
<nyneve at u.washington. <nyneve at u.washington.edu>
edu> cc:
Sent by: Subject: interesting way to start the day -- unless you're the pigeon
TWEETERS-owner at u.wash
ington.edu


03/20/01 10:20 AM
Please respond to
nyneve







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.