Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:02:58 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bryce Butler Subject: Two Raptor Day in Baltimore MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Being new to the area I don't know if Merlins are all that uncommon around Baltimore. Bolton Hill sits directly northwest of downtown. On my way to get coffee I noticed a lack of birds at the feeder. This usually means a cat is about so I went out to check. The entire neighborhood was silent of birdcall. Looking around I spotted the Merlin atop a tv antenna on the 12 story apartment building next door on McMechen street between Eutaw and Bolton. I was able to observe it in a scope for about twenty minutes as it flew out and returned several times, preening and muting between forays. I'm from Seattle where Merlins are around all winter. Do Merlins overwinter here, or was this bird in migration? When I went out to see if I could observe it further in the neighborhood I was distracted as a mature Copper's Hawk flew in flushing several Mourning Doves from a tree on my street. The Cooper's then perched for 15 minutes, where I was able to observe it. I have the same question about the bird overwintering or migrating. Bryce Butler capitanob@aol.com Baltimore, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================