Cliff:

Enjoyed your post on first year bird. We had lots of the usuals from the
moment I first took dogs out: two chickadees, house finch, Stellar's jay, N.
flicker, crow, bushtit, junco. It was only in the last hour that I finally
noted something potentially unfamiliar. I've only begun paying semi-serious
attention to feathered critters passing through our yard for the past year or
so. So ID skills, while improving, are still pretty limited, especially on
solo viewings.

Profile that passed overhead while I was restocking feeders today was
unfamiliar. Approx. size of rock dove, which is what I originally thought it was.
But this was a much more determined, aggressive straight-ahead program,
without the swooping and such that seems common to rock dove. And it was alone.
Being overhead against monochrome, I was unable to pick out any coloration
at all, thus having to rely on profile and flight style. Aggressive pumping
and distinct sharp elbows and comparatively narrow wings got me thinking of
smaller raptors, and limited research has turned up a couple profiles (e.g., p.
204 in Hawks in Flight) that hint at possibility of merlin. Have you seen
merlin in Ballard area recently or with any frequency? Any alternative
directions to point me in based on my scanty clues?

Paul Johanson
North Beach