I was fortunate to observe our resident Twin Lakes Merlin taking its bath
in Lake Jeane this morning. With a remote chance, that I am dating myself
here, it brought the old song 'Splish, splash - I am taking a bath" to my
mind. Unfortunately an American Crow walked up to harass the little falcon,
however the feisty little guy was not tolerating any interruptions. It
marched out of the water after the retreating crow, with open bill. hissing
and extended one leg with talons showing. Satisfied that the larger crow
was impressed by the tough little falcons response, it shuffled back into
the water and continued with the bath. This was repeated three times, with
the crow trying to mob the falcon, as soon as it got back into the water.
Fortunately the crow was silent and did not call in the crow mob for
reinforcement. It almost appeared, that the crow was attempting to steal a
prey item from the falcon, however there was none.
Finally a female Mallard came swimming up and that spooked the Merlin. It
took off low over the water with the crow in pursuit. The crow quickly gave
up the chase, since it could not match the falcons speed. The Merlin flew a
couple of low circles around the lake. including a fly-past at my position,
affording me great close-up views. It landed back at the original spot and
waddled back into the water and proceeded with its bath. Again the crow
showed up and started harassing the falcon, which came out of the water and
aggressively chased the crow off. The Merlin went back into the water and
continued the bath, only to be interrupted by two pair of Mallards this
time and took flight. The crow once again gave chase, but the Merlin easily
got away from it and after a loop around the lake, took off in between
houses. I thought this was the end of the performance and went back to
scanning for waterfowl, but to my surprise I noticed the Merlin being
chased by the crow again. It apparently had landed a little further away.
Once again it zoomed around the lake, flared and landed back at the first
spot and attempted to finish bathing. The crow was not letting it be and
the Merlin finally took off for good. What a clean living raptor and what a
great show to watch!

Cheers and good birding!

--
*Hans Feddern*
Twin Lakes/Federal Way, WA
thefedderns at gmail.com
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