Subject: [Tweeters] corrections on banded Merlins
Date: Aug 7 05:37:51 2009
From: Barbara Deihl - barbdeihl at comcast.net


I received clarification on the Queen Anne banded Merlins, which I'm
passing along here:

The Jan./2009 Merlin photographed at Dick's burger stand on Queen Anne
(in Queen Anne News) already had a metal band (with a flange) on it's
RIGHT leg - the probable adult female was eating a pigeon and looked a
lot like the North Seattle adult female who was seen eating a Band-
tailed Pigeon on a gravel parking strip in North Seattle on Mar.
20/2009.

An adult(?) male Black Merlin, banded in Jan./09 (also in Queen Anne),
has a metal band (no flange) on his RIGHT leg.

So, if you happen to catch sight of a live Merlin with a metal band,
noting the leg on which the band is will be helpful and interesting,
but not necessarily definitive of the familial source of the bird.

It certainly would be helpful to get a study of the Seattle Merlins
going, so that subsequent young can be banded (with easily-
identifiable colored bands) and more easily and scientifically
followed and studied...

Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach, Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net