I was driving along a street in the Broadview neighborhood of Seattle when I heard a very loud squawking sound. I pulled over to investigate, and two birds were fighting (playing?) and flying around about 20 feet above the ground.  I parked and pulled out my camera (had it with me by pure luck). As I finished getting the camera ready, the two birds flew off into the very tall Doug Firs.  I waited for a full hour for them to fly out, and they never did.  I subsequently went back two other days to try to catch them in action, and have only succeeded in catching them flying up very high between the trees.  I also got a whole sequence of a Merlin eating a bird it had just caught, but the branch he chose to eat it in was very high off the ground, and in the shade.  It was very tough to get any good images.  But, I did what I could, and it is a new Life Bird for me.

Merlin Merlin Merlin I photographed a Merlin flying overhead with a bird in its talons.  Sorry, it is very hard to see in this photo: Merlin carrying a bird it just caught on the wing I then photographed him for the next 20 minutes as he consumed the bird.  It was tough to get good images because he chose a branch in the shade, so I did the best I could:

Merlin Merlin Merlin Merlin I kept hoping that it would take him longer to eat the bird, because the sun was just about to reach that branch. But, no luck. At least I got some usable images.
To see more pictures from the day: click here: July 30, 2017