Subject: [Tweeters] Merlin - 1, Sharp-shinned Hawk - 0
Date: Feb 13 20:36:11 2012
From: Jeff Kozma - jcr_5105 at charter.net


Hi Tweeters,

Yesterday, after driving home from running errands, I was almost to my house when I noticed a Merlin flying over my neighbors house after a House
Finch. It missed and flew back in the direction it came from. As I approached my house, I could see the Merlin sitting on the peak of a roof
of a house along the street behind mine. I ran in the house to get binocs to make sure it was a Merlin and not a kestrel. I went out the back door
to position myself to find the Merlin on the roof. I just got the binocs on it when I noticed a commotion behind me. A Sharp-shinned Hawk had dove
into the bushes to flush birds that were hiding there.a common tactic for this 1st year bird that has been here since late October. A few House Finches flew out giving alarm calls and headed into the sky to avoid the Sharpie (it was not successful in capturing a bird.although yesterday it did nab a House Finch). Just then, the Merlin rocketed off the house and with an extremely fast sprint it took one of the House Finches in mid-air (boy can Merlins move!). The finch
never even flinched in flight (how is that for alliteration) and I don't think it even knew the Merlin was targeting it. I have to wonder if the Merlin, in its initial attack on the House Finch that it missed, had gone after the bird after the initial Sharpie attack in my yard. The Sharpie will normally fly into the yard and flush the birds (the Merlin's first attack). Then, it will assess if any birds have taken cover in the shrubbery in my yard and try to drive them out (hence the Merlin's second attack). The biologist in me thinks that this is just coincidence.the Merlin being in the right place at the right time. The other side of me can't help thinking, was the Merlin really following the Sharpie around and using it as a person would use a hunting dog to flush game? Something to ponder.

Jeff Kozma

Yakima

j c r underscore 5105 at charter dot net