Paul,

Merlin's a good guess,but look at Sharp-shinned Hawk as well. The part about bent wrists is pretty typical of Sharpies.

-Rolan

Pjgumbo at aol.com wrote:
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
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Rolan Nelson
Lakewood, WA
rnbuffle at yahoo.com
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