hello tweets,

the merlin finally settled into a pine tree to wait for the crows
to forget he was there. he was fairly well-hidden from their sharp
eyes, but even still, it took several hours for the crows to become
distracted by a new crisis elsewhere.

quite a crowd of us gathered to watch this handsome fellow in
whispered reverence. he watched us closely, too, bobbing his head
and fluffing his feathers every so-often. i think he felt quite secure
in his pine tree.

at 1230, the merlin swooped down to reclaim his pigeon. he dragged it
iunder a large bush and began plucking and eating it. again, a crowd
of us sat on the ground of the parking lot, watching everything he did.
quite tolerant of us, although we did take care to remain as still as
possible and spoke only in muted whispers.

at one point while this guy was dining, several english sparrows
flew into the bush above where he was sitting. they were jabbering
in their non-musical chirps and suddently, they exploded into loud
chirps and shrieks and the branches started shaking.

"oops, there's a fight," whispered one of the observers.

"no way," said i. "they just saw the merlin!" and the sparrows all
shot out of the bush in different directions.

after 20 minutes, he was finished with his meal and i -- the only one
left at this point in time -- watched him run across the ground and
jump into the low branches of another nearby pine tree. the bird cleaned
his beak by wiping it on the bark and began fixing his feathers after
jumping up into higher branches.

at this point, i left, remembering what i was procrastinating from,
urgh!

my advisor told me just now that this is a "regular merlin" and not
one of the so-called "black merlins" that are seen in the queen charlotte
islands. my advisor also mentioned that there is a black merlin that has
been resident in carkeek park this winter. hrm, sounds like an upcoming
bird watching trip for interested folks.

i asked my advisor if this merlin was going to hang around and eat
the rest of the pigeon -- it sure seems like "the jackpot" to me,
catching a big fat pigeon, and my advisor thinks that he probably
will remain in the area unless something steals the pigeon (unlikely,
it's well-hidden) before he eats it all.

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.