Well, Sat. at my work, I had a jack (male merlin) visit the area. He sat for
a few seconds and then went straight over our property and over the trees
dipping down at probably some starlings or something, a flock of waxwings
quickly bunched up and took off. I was up in Lynden doing some hawking when
I saw a merlin up there. He sat for a second too, harassed by some crows,
then he left in a hurry a couple of inches above the ground and about a 1/3
of a mile away, he went in-between a farm building and the house missing his
quarry because after all the starlings in the vicinity went up, so did the
pigeons down the road which tells me he cruised on up the street. Plenty of
accipiters up there too. A female cooper's was being her typical self in
scarring the heck out of all the birds perching right on a wire in the
middle of the farm looking at the thousands of starlings and other various
birds. She hit two barns as far as I know because I saw her twice, but I'm
sure she was at other barns as well. A sharpy was ringing up a flock of
blackbirds (brewer's and redwings) until she gave up, and another male
cooper's or maybe a female sharpy (couldn't see) was at a barn scaring the
starlings. Quite a busy day up in Lynden which is always packed with every
type of raptor.


Blake Iverson
Arlington, WA
coopershwk at hotmail.com



Blake Iverson




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