Hi All,

This morning we had a treat in our backyard. We are just completing a landscaping project to replace almost all the lawn with a woodland garden and water feature to make it bird friendly. (This has already increased the number of birds noticeably.) As a result, we've been paying more attention to the goings-on out back. Looking out the upstairs window around 8:00 this morning, I saw a smallish raptor in a snag about 150 yards away. My automatic thought was an accipiter, quite common around our area, but the body and tail proportions weren't right. The binocs through the window weren't conclusive so (fortunately) I ran downstairs and set up the scope. It was a beautiful Taiga subspecies MERLIN, a first for our yard list. But, it got better! After treating us to a good five minutes of nice viewing during which it was obvious the bird was hunting due to the frequent searching head movements, it flew about 100 yards to the left to a second snag that often hosts raptors.!
A sec
ond MERLIN, same subspecies, flew at the first bird when it was within a few feet of the tree. A low key chase took place and one of the birds flew off behind some trees. We then got more great looks at the remaining bird, until a courageous and feisty Douglas Squirrel appeared on the snag limb (100 plus feet in the air!), scolded and moved toward the Merlin which flew off. A short while later, one bird returned to the snag, then the second came back and another half-hearted aerial duel sent one of them packing again. Then the remaining bird spotted a flying passerine and gave chase - with the passerine dodging the bullet and the Merlin heading back to the snag. Given the relatively (for a Merlin) unimpressive hunting foray, I suspect the bird(s) is a young of the year still honing hunting skills. The two birds did not act like a pair given the chasing, but neither did the aggressor appear to be overly concerned about the other one. Perhaps these were two young birds !
migrati
ng together? Perhaps one or both will winter in the area - one can always hope!

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com