Green Lawn Cem, Columbus 12/223/06 After a fruitless day on Wed, the merlin was very cooperative today. I arrived in late morning, and while cruising around , just north of the pit, observed a gentleman photographing something--it was the merlin. I thought he would be posting by now. He said he had been there for quite a while and taken ___ (a large number) of pictures with his elegant apparatus. It was on a branch of an oak on the ridge behind the mausoleum/auditorium and in plain view from the road. Eventually, it took off to the north. I walked around the northern part of the ridge and circled back towards the mausoleum and found the bird perched high (but in clear view) on a large oak tree on the flats just north of the mausoleum--again in plain view. It was feeding on a small bird, which appeared to be a junco. It appeared to have only recently started. I watched it awhile, then went over to the pit to see what was there and came back. It had finished its lunch but remained perched at the same spot. While there, another man and his son, pulled up. They said they had seen a merlin in section 57, which is just a list SW of the iron bridge (near the junction of the red and white road stripes). They indicated that is was only "about 10 minutes" ago. If so, it would have been a different merlin because the one I was observing had been in that tree for at least 1/2 hour. I went back that way and cruised the area, but found nothing more. Rich Richard Cressman Columbus OH [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]