Merlin

Sitting in the local park I heard a hawk or what I thought to be a hawk.  Hawks do not sound like Crows, but Crows can mimic hawks.  After listening to the BirdWeb.org bird sounds.  It was a Merlin! 


I've said that there was a Merlin flying around here and actually saw one in my yard a few years ago - swooping down from a treetop and picking up a Junco for lunch.  He flew right in front of me and then turned and flew up between the trees. Watching him was an awesome sight because it appeared that the bird was going to plummet straight into the ground before he picked up the unsuspecting Junco.

The Merlin was sitting in the tree top above the nearby ravine.  I could not see his coloring as the sun did not light him from my position on the ground.  He was sitting on the top of the tree calling and calling for several minutes before he flew back into trees around the ravine.

Mountain Bluebirds

Took a drive down Canal Rd and saw the resident Mountain Bluebird near
the oak stand. And I was surprised to see another Mountain Bluebird
1/4 mile past the oaks. There is alot of new construction going up on
Canal, very near this oak stand. I was happy to see two Mountain
Bluebirds though both male. I have yet to see a female Mountain
Bluebird. I know that there must be at least one female nearby.

Watched a Red Winged Blackbird that lives near the canal bridge on
Wilkenson along with a Raven and several swallows flying over the
canal. It is a wonder that these swallows can fly just above the
water. One swallow had a rusty brown back and two very long pin shaped
tail feathers ... so I suspect it may be a Barn Swallow.

Two Oregon Juncos appeared today at the leftover millet feeders. I
have had no visits since the Pine Siskins have emptied most all of the
millet feed in less than two days. It seems that the Pine Siskins do
not like to feed at a less than FULL feeder......I may have an idea
here and just not fill the feeders completely in order to see my
Chickadees and Juncos again. I have not seen the two pair of Pine
Siskins in about two days now. The Chickadees happily peck at the
millet that still remains at the feeder.

In the past week I have had a visit from a European Starling. He will
light on the suet to feed briefly. He has since moved on. European
Starlings are not frequent visitors to my yard.

I watched the Merlin fly over at about 5PM the other night. A local
Chickadee sent out a sharp set of alerts just before he flew into my
line of vision and then North. He was a very very light grey, Merlin.
Likely the same Merlin that I have seen here in and around my yard
before that most have attempted to convince me was a hawk. (I have
seen both here.) It is so neat to hear everything around you in the
yard go so silent and then....wait....and look around after the alert
call. I get a surprise nearly everytime!

Yardbirds

Two pine siskin have been feeding regularly at the feeder full of
black oil sunflower and millet. They will sit togather one on each
side, balancing the feeder and have lunch.

One of five local squirrels attacked that feeder yesterday and snipped
the string holding it in the tree. The string was replaced promptly
with a metal coat hanger. *Gotcha*

Three red-winged black birds sang at the canal in and above the thorny
brush. There are about 15 Juncos that feed regularly here, along with
a pair of red-breasted nuthatches, and the occassional downy
woodpecker.

Watched *something* (Merlin?) dive from a moderate altitude above the
treetop several times. Pointed wing tips. Medium sized bird, about
the size of a large Raven or Crow. This bird dives straight down
really fast. Just before the dive he will flutter in place in
mid-air. Watched him/her dive three or four times. Really neat to
watch.

Oftentimes the crows here will alert us here of soaring Eagles.

There were over 190 ducks and at least 10 Canadian Geese on American
Lake - Lakewood, Pierce County, Saturday. Didn't see any Eagles
Saturday.

Birds: Merlin or Hawk and migration

Birds: Merlin or Hawk and migration

Sunny Day Wednesday

Two very large flocks of geese flew East on Wednesday, December 23, 2009.  There were three "V" formations and one small line. Each "V" consisted of about 30 geese and they flew side by side in two V patterns, the smallest line flew in the middle.

Does this mean that these two flocks have different "leaders"?

The Merlin/Hawk was spotted today sitting atop an electric line, in an open area, 1/8 of mile from where he/she was spotted several weeks ago.  Still pale grey breast (fluffy today), flat tucked head, long thin tail, very small in stature.

Flying just two blocks North of where I live there were also two Bald Eagles circling less than 1/4 mile away from the Merlin/Hawk.

A robin visited my yard Wednesday, too along with the usual Junco's, Towhee's, Black capped chickadees, and Jays.

There was also a visit from a woodpecker, but he was too high into the trees for me to identify his profile/shadow.

It was great to see the Merlin/Hawk back, especially with the Bald Eagles flying within a very short distance from his perch. 

Burien, WA had an episode on the news last night where two Bald Eagles were fighting in someone's residential backyard.  I have never heard of Bald Eagles fighting before - so I found that interesting to say the least.  The poor homeowner heard the ruckus from inside his home and definitely said that that THUMP wasn't a squirrel!  The Bald Eagles were actually duking it out within 2 feet of the homeowners house in his backyard and may have rolled off of the roof fighting!

Sunning predators

Unidentified bird with a black head, clinging to a tree drumming for
sap or bugs, drumming pattern of 5 or 6 stopping momentarily looking
around, back to drumming with 5 or 6 beats, black wings with a solid
white bar down its wing edges, long pointy beak, black tail - wasn't
able to see underside tail area or breast. Very small bird, but not
as small as a brown tree creeper. The only drummer this week!

A black capped chickadee does frequent a side yard feeder, while the
Junco's prefer to ground feed and flit among the evergreen branches.
Some hover. The Towhee's enjoy the bath when the ice is replaced with
water and will feed at a plate placed in the bath of millet seed.
Once it appeared that the Towhee's AND the Junco's were at the bath
togather. These Towhee's have more brown across their breast than the
illustrations in Peterson's. Usually the Towhee's will come after the
Junco's. There is one small bird, smaller than a Warbler, that has
three yellow stripes across its crown sided by black stripes who is
friendly. He hopped right up to a branch within a foot or less of me
as I replaced the bath water. There were so many birds enjoying this
bath I couldn't count them all this week! Most were a flock of
Junco's.

There were several predatory birds flying around yesterday afternoon
in the sun at an altitude of 1,500 ft. and 500 ft. and less. One Bald
Eagle flying with two other Bald Eagles. They circled for several
minutes high over the tree tops. There was a commotion of Crows that
distracted my viewing and harrassing what appeared to be the light
grey Merlin who frequented two or three weeks ago. The Merlin appears
to be in the same general location as he was the first time I spotted
him. He must be nesting nearby. It's flight pattern, much different
from that of a hawk and its wings taking a more angular shape. The
crow was able to get within two feet or less of the Merlin and was
flying in a straight line towards him when the Merlin changed
direction. It (The Merlin) darted sharply up and swiftly turned as
the Crow attempted to chase the Merlin away just above the tree tops.
After this commotion the juvenille Bald Eagle flew North just above
the tree tops and one Bald Eagle flew East. The Bald Eagles appear to
be circling over the nearby man-made lake. Looking hungry perhaps and
sunning. There were no clouds yesterday afternoon.

Repost TWET

Merlin or Hawk and migration

BirdWeb's classification system for abundance when left BLANK - "Has occurred less than annually (if at all) in very small numbers or at great intervals."  Determinations of abundance or frequency are not solely reflected by a singular birding guide and, in fact, abundance and frequency in general may not be addressed for each of the subspecies of Merlin excepting migration and breeding.




Merlins are commonly found throughout western Washington, including urban areas, in winter and during migration. -BirdWeb

Upon searching the Archives,  a post from December 13, 2007, [URL ref: FRG] indicated that Richardson's Merlin in Western Washington is "pretty rare".  The Richardson's Merlin was also referenced as the "Prairie Parkland" in this post. [ Boreal ref. Tiaga URL.]

Most posts searched in the Archives reference the Taiga Merlin, a brown colored Merlin, which is decidedly the most common, as is the black in Western Washington. A post from British Columbia ref. "Merlin Prairie Falcon"?  I believed the Prairie Falcon to be different from that of a Merlin of three varieties: [ typonymic, subspecific, color description] Prairie - richardsonii, a very light grey; Pacific or Black- suckleyii, and  Taiga - columbaris, brown. The Archives and have found 27 references to the Richardson's variety, 76 references to the Taiga variety.  The only Archive post for term Merlin suckleyii URL. Merlin Pacific 517 or Merlin Black 1242.

At 12 feet from the bird, my visualization of its wing shape and flight pattern indicated strongly that this bird was not a hawk. But, I could be wrong. I did not get to see his head, eyes or full breast, as his head was tucked and facing away from me and he was quick! He swooped in from either the top of a nearby tree or from  above the tree.  I did not see him until he was 1/2 of the way down the side of the trunk, 10 feet above the ground. He flew nearly parallel and vertically to the tree trunk where he flew forward 6ft and likely scooped up a Junco 2 ft off of the ground. A small group of 15-20 Junco's were feeding in this lightly treed area. Another group of 10 or so Juncos were feeding 30ft away in another lightly treed, brushy spot. An alert was called that sounded like a Steller's Jay.  I thought the alert was due to the squirrel that had wandered inside the group's feeding area.  I saw a flash of his underside after he gained my attention, which was fluffy and white on his undertail as he picked up a Junco or ? tip toed and stretched out his legs mid-air for nothing? He then flew sharply to his right 6ft. which was directly in front of me by much less than 12 feet and was 3ft off of the ground.  He had smooth feathers on his backside which were a very very light shade of grey.  He sharply turned left again for 8ft or so where he finally turned again right picking up altitude all the while from 3ft off of the ground to 5'  to 8ft where he flew outside of my vision.  I will have to study Sharp-shinned hawks much further, obviously.

 "To get a positive ID, you'd need to see all five tails bands (all five bordered by dark), the presence of anterior barring on the outermost primary and complete barring on the second most distal spot on the posterior vane of the outermost primary."

     "Wheeler and Clark's Photographic Guide lists male sharp-shinned's as being 9-11 inches long, and weighing 3-4 ounces.  They show a nice picture of the back view on page 34, photo SS05."

    "Kate Davis, Falcons of North America (2008) lists a male Merlin as 9 to 11 inches long as well, and weighs 5.6 to 6 ounces.  So if one were looking for the smaller of the two, the sharp-shinned actually weighs a good bit less."

There was this recent post from the Archives which held a link for photographs of Merlin's. There are others that were sent to me in emails that I will have to dig out and place links to here, as well as book references for hawks and raptors.

• "Hawks in Flight" URL
• Raptors of western North America by Brian K Wheeler, Princeton University Press
• Kate Davis, Falcons of North America (2008) 

The mapped area presented as a guide on BirdWeb suggest that the migration of (Tiaga) Merlin more closely matches the central area of Washington along the western most portion of the mountain range and does not include a migratory range of Thurston County for the Richardson's variety, but the brown Tiaga migration into "the US, Central America, and northern South America." [Prairie Merlins occur in the state, passing through in migration. -BirdWeb] The Patuxent Center indicates that the Prairie Merlin, "Breeder and resident in prairies of south-central Canada and the upper Midwest of the United States with some moving south to New Mexico." What is 50 miles to a bird that travels from Canada to Central America or Mexico during migration?

Given the little guide information that I have absorbed through 5 birding guides and BirdWeb I can say that the migratory pattern's of the Tiaga Merlin have been studied, somewhat?, whereas the Prairie Richardson's variety has not much information on migration in the birding guides. I will have to keep studying to determine. It it also good to note that the varieties interbreed in Canada. [ref. Canada, Merlin, TWET].


[*Contrary to BirdWeb, the Merlin is not Uncommon West of the Cascades per Tweeters Alerts Admin. Nov. 14, 2009 http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?value=search&id=112 
UNCOMMON meaning=" Found in small numbers, and usually—but not always—found with some effort in appropriate habitat at the right time of year".]

Merlin

As I was watching an assortment of Junco's feed, a Merlin swooped in flying low to the ground with arched wings. He was grey with four white stripes on his very long square tail. - November 12, 2009 near dusk.


It was quite exciting to see a Merlin considering the number of Junco's that were around just before dark.  One Junco had just chirped out in alarm that was somewhat ignored.  A resident squirrel, who also frequents that particular feeding area, had just wandered in looking for food and may have been used as part of a distraction so that the Merlin could feed on a tasty Junco.  I am not aware if Merlin's hunt using distractions? The Merlin was quite low to the ground at less than two feet - so the likelihood is great that he snatched a Junco. Not much else around that he would enjoy - I imagine that it appeared a feast with the number of Junco's available at over 15 Junco's with in 3ft-10ft of his "swoop" and another 10 Junco's 20ft-30ft  away opposite.




I don't believe that it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk due to the overall grey coloring of the back of the bird, the smoothness of its wing feather tips/shape,  the four white stripes across its tail feathers and its tail feather shape, its overall size was quite small - considering most predators. I was within 30 feet and quite shocked that something other than a crow would swoop around me and a few 4ft trees/bushes so agilely and with much speed!




This Merlin was very light grey, unlike most of the examples in two different book titles.  I have issue with both titles in their descriptions of the light grey form of Merlin (F. c. suckleyi) - as described by : 1) Birds of Washington State by Bell and Kennedy and 2) Western Birds by Roger Peterson. 


Unfortunately, I did not view the underside of this bird or its tucked head.


Peterson describes the prairie form as "paler, lacking mustaches." and the Coastal NW form as "dusky, lacking light eyebrow stripe." However, the identification photos list a brown "columbarius", a dark grey/black "richordsonii" and two forms of "suckleyi" one grey the other very light grey.




Bell and Kennedy in the title, Birds of Washington State, has a coloring description that confuses me further by indicating that the [quote] "Black Merlin" (F. C. suckleyi) is most often seen along the coast and inland in western regions.  The less dark "Taiga Merlin" (F. C. columbarius) is seen mostly east of the Cascades. The paler "Prairie Merlin" (F. C. richardsonii) may occur rarely in eastern Washington." [endquote].




Birds of Washington State indiciates "columbarius" as the "Tiaga Merlin" which is less dark than that of the "suckleyi" or "Black Merlin".  Peterson's title, Western Birds, offers a clearer example of "suckleyi" as being the lightest grey of all Merlin's.




The two descriptions of "richardsonii" and "suckleyii" rival one another.


 I had ruled out an accipitor due to this birds tightly formed, smoothly lying wing tip feathers that formed a sharp angle.  The bird was witnessed  while swooping and tightly turning with its wings held in a very specific arch whereby its wing tip feathers formed a tight downward angle leaving no spaces between its wing tip or wing edge feathers. Am I wrong to say that it wasn't an accipitor due to its wing feather tips forming a tight mass, but not held to its breast?  I believed accipitors to have spaces between their wing tip feathers and have a more rounded appearance.


The Junco's were not at a bird feeder, but in a patch of lightly treed ground (ie "feeding area")  There is a field a short distance from
this feeding area, where I have also found predated dead birds, and have seen falcons flying overhead (wing tips in flight differ from an
accipitor) .  This is in close proximity to a densely wooded area with many felled and cavity filled deadwood trees.  All with a modest range of the Nisqually River and Walden Creek.


Merlin Photo - how beautiful!  The bird I witnessed was a much lighter shade of grey and had a very very long square tail with four bars of white, where the end of its tail feathers was also barred white.  This photo depicts a short tail in comparison, but its feather composition seems to match (very fine - compact feathers).


http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?photoID=6949450&cat=38975


Sharp Shinned Hawk - the tail does match the length of my bird, but its feather composition appears too large and not as finely composed as my bird.


http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?photoID=5731172&cat=38975


Contrary to BirdWeb, the Merlin is not Uncommon West of the Cascades per Tweeters Alerts Admin. Nov. 14, 2009
http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?value=search&id=112