OT: An Interesting Encounter

[IronNoggin]

Yesterday the dog and I were returning home from our afternoon stroll when I saw a dove winging between our house and the neighbors.
Having heard a Hoo Hoo (Eurasian Collared Dove) at distance the past couple of days, I was really staring at this one to see if he was the likely candidate.

Out of nowhere a dark streak slammed into the airborne dove with a load WHACK!

WTH??

The dove tumbled to the neighbor's lawn and I saw a Merlin make a swift turn back towards it.
The Merlin then landed and dispatched the crippled dove very efficiently.

The hound had not noticed, so I hurried her inside.
Poured myself a nice rum, and watched as the Merlin consumed his prey at no more than 15 feet.
The show went on for 45 minutes as he first plucked the dove, then chowed down on it.
And yeah, I was cheering him on the entire time!

I got a few pictures and even some video but they turned out somewhat blurry having been shot through the window:





My Lady wandered home just in time to watch him finish up and take once more to the sky.
I raised my glass in salute, and wished him All The Best in his hunting endeavors in our neighborhood.
Hope the little bugger hangs around.

All in all a very entertaining experience!

Cheers,
Nog

[papabear1]

I really enjoyed the story, " BUT " beeing from down here in, Missouri, I have never heard of a Merlin, and the Dumb Ars question is,,,,,,
Is a Merlin in the Hawk family ??

Dave

[jd4223]

I live in Detroit,Michigan (residential neighborhood) and about a month ago witnessed a Falcon nail a Pigeon in my apartment parking lot. The odd thing is Detroit has nesting Falcons in the downtown district where the Pigeon population is high, so to see a Falcon that far from its territory seemed odd.

[Prmtvbowman22]

About 2wks ago I heard something slam into the glass of my patio door. Jumped up to see a redtail with a dove pinned to the ground about 20yds away. He saw me but managed to get a short video of him flying away with dove in his talons. There are about 10 more that come for seed so maybe I'll see him again.

[Normous]

That is so cool.

Back in early Dec 21 I witnessed how efficient Merlin's are.
During a rainstorm I was slowing to stop at a traffic light when directly right in front of me a Merlin was chasing a zig zagging Starling. It knocked the Starling into my wet windshield just above the wiper blade in front of my face.

The auto wiper functioned flipping the Starling to my left only to get caught mid air just above my side view mirror by the swift Merlin who preformed some sort or air acrobatics.

The whole event took less than 2 seconds and proved these mini falcons are swift hunters.

[papabear1]

I really enjoyed the story, " BUT " beeing from down here in, Missouri, I have never heard of a Merlin, and the Dumb Ars question is,,,,,,
Is a Merlin in the Hawk family ??

Dave

Answer to my own question ,
I see from other post that a Merlin is in the,
Falcon family.
Never too old to learn.

Dave

[rmb721]

I really enjoyed the story, " BUT " beeing from down here in, Missouri, I have never heard of a Merlin, and the Dumb Ars question is,,,,,,
Is a Merlin in the Hawk family ??

Dave

I had never heard of a Merlin before either. Thank you for the lesson.

[Hillcountry]

Amazing the dexterity in flight the smaller hawks/falcons have! Always a joy to see them in action…that said, all I “usually” see is the aftermath of feathers and blood splotches on the ground.
Owls are another of those amazing birds!

[xcaliber]

Nature often provides the best of entertainment for us at the expense of some edible creatures, we see owls snatching rabbits all the time around here, better than watching the news aye!

[Prmtvbowman22]

While sitting in my treestand one day wearing a facemask a Coopers hawk landed 3ft from my face. Sat there for about 10min making its unusual call. You know you're doing something right when a creature that alert doesn't detect you.

[AJ01]

I really enjoyed the story, " BUT " beeing from down here in, Missouri, I have never heard of a Merlin, and the Dumb Ars question is,,,,,,
Is a Merlin in the Hawk family ??

Dave

Answer to my own question ,
I see from other post that a Merlin is in the,
Falcon family.
Never too old to learn.

Dave

Dave the Merlin is indeed a member of the Falcon family...

Merlin pic below...



The American Kestrel is also a member of the Falcon family, but most people refer to them as a Hawk...

And this is the Kestrel...



Regardless of what family they belong to, they are very efficient hunters!!

Back many, many years ago when Nobles actually hunted with Falcons, the Merlin was called a "Lady Hawk" due to it's small size.
The Kestrel has been referred to as a "Pigeon Hawk".

I was sitting in a tree stand a few years back and actually had a Great Horned Owl come and pluck a rabbit off the ground not 30 yards from my stand. He swooped on that rabbit and pounded it a couple of times with those huge talons of his. Once he was satisfied it was dead, he made one hop and with a silent wing beat, he and the rabbit were gone.
If I had NOT seen him, I would have never heard him!!
Nature at its BEST!!

Birds of Prey are just neat!!!

[grouse]

I really enjoyed the story, " BUT " beeing from down here in, Missouri, I have never heard of a Merlin, and the Dumb Ars question is,,,,,,
Is a Merlin in the Hawk family ??

Dave

I did a little quick research and discovered that merlins have been seen all over Missouri but are not common. Kestrels are much more common and you (and I) may have seen a merlin and thought it was a kestrel(they look pretty similar.

[IronNoggin]

Years ago I flew a white phase Redtail while living in Alberta.
She was chiefly trained on pheasants, and did a fine job of that.

One of my longest lasting Buddies was the President of the North American Falconry Association for many years.
He flew Peregrines, Goshawks and Gyr's. Had a lot of fun with him over the years.

He also went off to Kazakhstan and lived with the Mongols there for a few months.
They flew Steppe Eagles (pretty close to our Golden Eagles) after wolves.
The Steppe Wolves are about 1/2 in size between our coyotes and timber wolves.
He brought back some downright amazing footage!

Regardless of how many times you've watched them in action, it never ever gets boring!

Cheers,
Nog

[IronNoggin]

Back many, many years ago when Nobles actually hunted with Falcons, the Merlin was called a "Lady Hawk" due to it's small size.
The Kestrel has been referred to as a "Pigeon Hawk".

The Merlin has been called both a Lady Hawk (coincidentally the name of my white phase Redtail back in the day) and Pigeon Hawk.

The noticeably smaller Kestrel is more commonly known as the Sparrow Hawk.

Regardless of what we call them, they certainly are fascinating creatures!

Cheers,
Nog

[DuckHunt]

An unsuspecting squirrel...


Doh!


Last pic before it vanished as quietly as it arrived..