by Terry Steele
At last! I finally got a decent photograph of a male adult merlin. I have had opportunities in the near past to photograph females and juveniles, but every time I’ve seen a photograph-able male, I haven’t had my camera gear with me.
I’ve watched this remarkable species fly down robins in or near our yard with a powerful burst of speed to overtake their prey. In 2012, in our home area, Kay and I witnessed extremely high numbers of migrating robins which resulted in more merlin sightings than we had ever experienced.
That same autumn, while cutting fence posts on a neighbor’s ranch, I watched a male merlin chasing a northern flicker. As they went out of sight, I went back to work. I’m not sure how much time had elapsed when I looked up and saw a northern flicker hot on the tail of a male merlin! The merlin had no trouble out-distancing the flicker, but the latter seemed very serious in his pursuit of this small falcon.
Twice in my life, I had the opportunity to observe falcons eating a whole bird. The first time was in March of 2000 at the Salton Sea in extreme southeast California. A peregrine falcon was consuming a green-winged teal. It ate everything but some feathers and intestines. When it got to the tarsi (lower legs) and feet, it swallowed those whole.
Twelve years later at our home in Grant County, Oregon, I photographed a merlin through our kitchen window that was devouring a robin. Just like the peregrine falcon, it left behind a pile of feathers and intestines as it swallowed whole the robin’s tarsi and feet. Photographing through window glass didn’t yield sharp photos of this juvenile merlin, but I was hoping to catch the image well enough to record this event. I find it fascinating that both falcons ingested their prey in the same manner – right down to the last toe. They have a unique way of dealing with bones, toenails and feathers. They form throat-sized, tube-shaped casts (pellets) of indigestible parts within the stomach (wrapped in feathers), constrict esophagus muscles, throw back their heads and pop out a pellet.
