Green Lawn Cem, Columbus 12.24.06 A Christmas bonus today. In mid afternoon, I had a little time so I decided to check out Green Lawn. After checking the usual spots (East of the bridge, oaks back of and north of the Mausoleum) I cruised up to the north end of the ridge and heading south. As a entered the more heavily treed area, a Cooper's flushed. I drove around to the area, hoping for another glimpse and came to--- "voila!". This in the area in back of (west of) the mausoleum and beyond the peak of the ridge. There is a tall, narrow spruce there of which the top half is dead. A bird (#1) was sitting on top of it. More on this one below. It sat there undisturbed for quite a while. Then I looked around and saw something in the large oak to the north. Sure enough it was a Merlin. It had a bird in its claws and was just sitting there. The prey was a little larger than what I saw yesterday and looked something like a starling. After about 10 minutes, it started on it. First the feathers were plucked (similar to what happened yesterday- but which not so clear). Then is started on its meal. I left it eating about 4:30 with the sun near the horizon. I sure wish I had video equipment for this one {but not even a camera (:( }. While I was watching it, #1 had gone, but I saw another falcon (#3) of the same size fly by a little distance to the west. This very well could have been the one I saw in the spruce, but at least it was a 2nd falcon and presumably a merlin. Bird #2 was just like the one I saw yesterday. It had very heavy streaks on the breast, very thin sideburns, and the tail banding had broad dark bands with very thin white bands similar to the flight pictures of the Taiga in Sibley. However, #1 had much more subdued striping on its breast (rather light and not so much), the bands in the tail were rather even (like that of the female Prairie type, at rest, in Sibley) and I couldn't see any sideburns. The head was also more like in this picture. But at the height of the bird and me with only binoculars, I couldn't see a lot of detail. I don't see much difference between this image in Sibley and his image of the 1st year Sharp-shinned. However, my VERY, VERY limited experience with both of these is that the Sharp-shinned is more skittish (like the Cooper's) and that the Merlin is quite nonchalant about observers. Perhaps they are more confident about their flight ability. I have not seen places cited where photos of these birds are posted except for one photo on the OOS site. I would like to see some of the pictures which have been taken for comparison with my sightings. This bird (these birds?) seems to like sit on exposed sites, seemingly posing for pictures as the ones did yesterday. Perhaps they are just ready to hunt. Today, both were in very photogenic places. Incidentally, my observations yesterday were about 2 hrs spanning the noon hour. Today I was out from about 3:00 to 4:45. As an anticlimax, I toured the south end before leaving and flushed 2 Cooper's Hawks. Actually, the glimpses I had were not really good enough for positive IDs if there were other real possibilities (I am a real amateur with hawks), but they were large and their shape was right, and they kept below treetop level (characteristic of the GL Coopers). In the one decent, but quick, look I had of the tail of one, I could not see any banding and the shape was typical accipiter. Merry Christmas, Rich Richard Cressman Columbus OH ______________________________________________________________________ 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]