Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 09:50:50 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Speicher, James (NIH/NIAID)" Subject: Merlin Comments: cc: "'tomwrightj@aol.com' (E-mail)" , "'wright.tomy@hawkeyesys.com' (E-mail)" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Over the weekend I identified, finally, the accipiter/falcon that has been hanging around my neighbor's and my feeders looking to pick off unsuspecting small birds. On Sunday it landed in full sun but with its back turned to me, revealing the long, square tail with dark tail bands - I counted three. The back was slatey/dark and what I could see of the belly feathers appeared light in color. The face was not visible. What clinched the ID for me was a second sighting just before full dark. I was out with my small dog when the falcon - easily identifiable as such by wing shape - flew not more than two feet from me, between me and my dog, and not more than three feet off the ground to perch in a tree briefly before flying off into the dark. Before bed I checked my two guides (Peterson's and Robbins/Golden Guide). The Peterson's was generally helpful in a pictorial way, but the Robbins included a statement that this falcon often flies low to the ground - perfect! My ID is Merlin. Jim Speicher jspeicher@niaid.nih.gov Bethesda @work:( FRED Co @home:) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================