FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] raptor morning

[Renee Grebe <grebe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What a morning...

I was woken up again at 5am to the hoots of the great horned owl (which have 
been with us for many weeks now).

But, I was out jogging by 7am and as I made my way home, a pileated (ok, ok, 
not a raptor, but...) called and I got a glimpse of it before it flew off.  I 
haven't seen them around much, so that was a treat.

Then, I noticed a dove sized bird flying just differently enough to catch my 
eye (quite a ways away).  Since I was near home, I grabbed the scope, and made 
Matt (my non-birding boyfriend/partner) also confirm what I was seeing.  From 
all accounts, I think it was a Merlin - it was roughly kestrel sized, but it 
appeared brown from our far-off vantage point.  I've never seen one, but I'm 
85% sure that's what it was.

Flying high on the heels of that, as we sat in overly sluggish traffic on 
Telegraph Road on our way to work, Matt and I watched a most dazzling chase - a 
sharp-shinned pursued a robin/dove - even had it in it's claws for a brief 
second!  We were able to watch them for about 20 seconds until they dashed out 
of view, but then [what appeared to be] a red-tailed flew in the same general 
direction, as if to give chase as well!

What a morning!
-Renee Grebe
 Alexandria, VA
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email 
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.