I had an hour to "waste" at lunch time today so I went to Wright Park.
When I arrived some 60 Goldfinch were busily lunching on weed seeds in
the meadow at the head of the trail, while a number of recent fledglings
were begging and jiggling new wings from the branches of shrubs and
saplings.
Peace turned to chaos as low from the east a Harrier jumped the
lunchers, zooming about among the shrubs scattering the Golden crowd
like crumbs in an gale. No catch was made.
An hour later, returning to the car I again found the chattering
finches, paused to listen, when a Merlin exploded at full speed into the
flock, darting, dashing, swerving, jinking ... always with three or four
panicking golden darts right in striking distance scurrying for their
lives while the rest flew in all directions like sparkler sparks on the
4th. Moments later, in some grasses between two shrubs, the Merlin was
munching on its lunch.
The full species list is at:
http://ebird.org/ebird/vt/view/checklist/email?subID=S11538774
Ian
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