Last weekend I watched with interest crows mobbing a pine tree in my next 
door 
neighbor's yard.   They eventually flushed an owl.    This afternoon - same 
tree - 
another mob of crows.    I looked carefully at the limbs, but couldn't see 
anything 
but crows furiously calling at something below them.   They eventually flew 
off.   
Not long afterwards, heard a Barred Owl calling close by.      

I was pleased to be telling my new next door neighbor about the probable owl 
in her
yard, when a Red-shouldered Hawk flew over, startling a Mourning Dove who 
bounced off my neighbor's window in its rush to be off.  

We took a walk around Leakin Park, heard a Red-tailed Hawk scream as it flew 
overhead, and spotted a Merlin in a tall dead tree in Winans Meadow.    Was 
so 
pleased it was still there when Paul and I returned, about 30 minutes later.  
If you 
were to park, as we did, in the Winans Meadow parking lot and go to the 
little bridge 
right there,  it was spending a of time at the top of a large dead tree not 
far to your 
left.   The overcast afternoon light wasn't great, but we had nice looks at 
it preening, 
flying and bringing back a meal.   (I found some feathers that floated down 
from 
the tree, presumably from the meal.  They were very small, tipped on one side 
with 
chestnut, the other side black,the rest colored gray.)  We believe the Merlin 
to be female.     


Elise Kreiss
Baltimore City