So I get home from dinner with the inlaws and wander to the back yard to see what's perching. Feed a couple of chickadees and RB nuthatches. So far fairly normal when a male purple finch shows up, common around here but rare around my feeders for some reason. After about 15 minutes some (10-15) adult and juvi chipping sparrows show up to feed at the mostly empty feeder which I obligingly re-fill. Just a few minutes after they return to the feeder, the star of the show swoops in, a merlin. Wow! The rest of the birds scatter except for one terrified juvi sparrow on the ground under the feeder who wouldn't move even when I stepped about a foot away from it. As for the Merlin, he inspected me for about a minute, flew up into the trees and eventually took chase after another bird into the forest beside us.
And, Murphy's Law, no camera... :x
Tom.
