"Pigeonhawk" is the antiquated name for Merlin falcon. We are seeing, on a daily basis, why they can be confused with each other, mostly because pigeons suddenly shoot out of the tall conifers and fly sorta like the Merlins, especially the young ones, which are not yet capable of smoothly jetting from place to place at mach-2 speeds like the adults. Yes, adult Merlins do occasionally drop a pigeon to the ground, and feast on it, but due to the pigeon's great mass, Merlins are not able to lift it up and carry it to a branch or other 'table'

So the following photo collection shows some nice stills from 2 days of watching a lot of action, which you will need to imagine as none of us was a videographer. We did wreck our necks following the actions, but we tolerated it and loved the action and the "cute" birds, as did the folks who came onto the scene.

Take a look :

https://flic.kr/s/aHskDRBSf9 (5 of the images were captured by N. Jones)

Kee-kee-kee


Barb Deihl, NML*
Matthews Beach Neighborhood - NE Seattle
barbdeihl at comcast.net

*Neighborhood Merlin Liaison !