As I was getting up this morning I heard a bunch of very upset crows nearby, and also a rapid alarm call I wasn’t familiar with. I grabbed my phone and got a somewhat distant recording with the Merlin app and it suggested a merlin. It was a faint recording and I’m not sure how good the technology is, so I grabbed my bins and went outside to look. The crows had moved off a bit and I couldn’t really see anything, so I headed home. As I was walking up to the door, the alarm calls started again right above my head and I saw a small falcon heading north with quick and snappy wingbeats, which then started dive bombing a tree until a hawk took off. I got a much better recording this time, and again Merlin was telling me it was a merlin. I’ve never seen one before, but I looked up in my other app and the size, sound recordings, and description of “wingbeats are powerful and deep, but quick” matched up pretty well with what I saw.

Jay
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