I have to start CARRYING the binoculars I have, man...

[robling_t]

Latest addition to the area's wildlife roster is what I'm pretty sure is a merlin. (I may have seen this bird or its friends a couple of times before, in fact.) I turned around when I heard something odd chortling up in a tree and got a fairly good view of a smallish, pale hawk with dark bars, brown-bagging its lunch, which was either a pigeon or the front half of a squirrel (I saw the silhouette of two feet on the lump...), which it then carried over to another tree after a few moments. I shall be observing this second tree more closely, because it looked as if the bird might have been feeding its catch to some offspring...

I like this neighborhood. Except for the part where I was out in the first place trying to escape the #@$$% block party that's still going on a few yards from my bedroom window. I really kind of wanted a nap, dammit.