At 7:49 PM -0400 9/12/07, jane wrote:
>Immature Merlins of either sex are effectively indistinguishable in 
>the field from adult
>females, and adult females from adult males primarily by the slaty 
>blue color of the males'
>backs.

*nods* the back was a fairly distinct brown.  I knew it wasn't a full 
adult male.  I just couldn't tell if it was female or immature and 
don't know enough of the ID marks to feel comfortable labeling it as 
one or the other.

--julie
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask]                    http://juliewaters.com/

	We've heard that a million monkeys at a million
	keyboards could produce the Complete Works of
	Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know
	this is not true.

			--Robert Wilensky