a beautiful scary falcon

An exceptionally cool, dry morning and the first sighting -- a Parula Warbler -- suggested that the place might be hopping but that did not really turn out to be the case. It was low tide and at the muddy edge of the pond there was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron (mashing up a good-sized crab) and a young one nearby. But most of the action was still at the head-of-the-marsh Tupelos. The big Catbird influx continued with gray, black-capped, tail waggers all over. Am Robins were down a bit in numbers as were the finches, Gold and House.

The big show was a cool but mean-looking Merlin sitting nearby on a dead branch right out in the open near our old right-of-way. It was not far from where I saw a Merlin a week or two ago. Like its predecessor, this was a dark-backed bird with heavy breast streaking, a stripy tail, a noticeable eye stripe and a faint but noticeable mustache mark making it a male bird from the so-called taiga race. I don't know if it was the same bird as the one seen earlier but it was closer in, better seen and extremely tame; it didn't fly as I approached it from underneath for quite some time, allowing me some great looks. A few Blue Jays came by calling but, as before, they did not go after it. The Blue Jays and the Merlin are almost the same size so perhaps the Blue Jays realize that the Merlin is not a serious enemy. None of the smaller birds even dared to come near; in fact, the invisibility and/or disappearance of small passerines may have been due to the presence of the falcon.

Eric Salzman