OT: An Interesting Encounter

[IronNoggin]

Yesterday the dog and I were returning home from our afternoon stroll when I saw a dove winging between our house and the neighbors.
Having heard a Hoo Hoo (Eurasian Collared Dove) at distance the past couple of days, I was really staring at this one to see if he was the likely candidate.

Out of nowhere a dark streak slammed into the airborne dove with a load WHACK!

WTH?? :wtf:

The dove tumbled to the neighbor's lawn and I saw a Merlin make a swift turn back towards it.
The Merlin then landed and dispatched the crippled dove very efficiently.

The hound had not noticed, so I hurried her inside.
Poured myself a nice rum, and watched as the Merlin consumed his prey at no more than 15 feet.
The show went on for 45 minutes as he first plucked the dove, then chowed down on it.
And yeah, I was cheering him on the entire time! :thumbup:

I got a few pictures and even some video but they turned out somewhat blurry having been shot through the window:





My Lady wandered home just in time to watch him finish up and take once more to the sky.
I raised my glass in salute, and wished him All The Best in his hunting endeavors in our neighborhood.
Hope the little bugger hangs around.

All in all a very entertaining experience!

Cheers,
Nog

[Albertadiver]

I was in Cochrane last fall and saw the same thing. Merlin just smoked a pigeon out of nowhere and didn't give two hoots that I was standing 5' away. Pigeon fought for about 10 minutes before expiring.

[Smokinyotes]

Very cool to see. Too bad they don’t eat ravens or magpies.

[kidd]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing that. It reminds me of a duck hunt in Manitoba when I was sitting against some reeds on the edge of a marsh. It was a bluebird day and I was getting sleepy when I heard the sound of air rushing past wings. Before I knew what was happening some bird of prey smacked a little bird right in front of me and then all was quiet. I watched a few feathers float down and land on the water. Will never forget it.
kidd

[Jayhad]

There is a Merlin in my neighbourhood, I feed birds via hanging feeders in my front yard. About every two months I see the Merlin smash birds feeding at my feeders, I love it.

[-JR-]

I watched a large Bird plug a duck out of a pond when I was elk hunting . That duck was just flapping its wings up side down as it was been taken away 100 ft up . Nature in its best !

Thanks for sharing !

[Grizzly Adams1]

I watched a shrike once chase a song bird into our picture window. Then he picked it up and flew away. Nature can be very surprising.

Grizz

[Stinky Buffalo]

That would have been quite the sight! Neat to see.

[roper1]

I was sitting on my horse by a gate a few years back watching some steers. Projectile out of the corner of my eye almost hit me in the head. It was a sparrow whizzing by my head with a merlin in hot pursuit.

When the sparrow zigged by me, the merlin zagged & snatched him right out of the air. Sparrow landed belly down, wings out, feet braced. Fought like Hades to stay belly-down, but that merlin just kept working & working until he got the sparrow flipped over.

Talons into the chest & it was over. Then the meal commenced, about 20 feet away. Amazing to watch, while the fight was on, I was hoping for the sparrow, he had lots of try.

[Twisted Canuck]

Great stories! I have never seen one like that, but I did see a couple crows putting the run on a horned owl once, running him out of Dodge. At one point one of the crows miscalculated and the owl got a hold of it with one talon, and man the fight was on, spinning together out of the air. The owl let go and buggered off, and the crows gave up on it, but pretty sure the one was damaged.

[Red Bullets]

Nature at its best. Thanks for sharing IronNoggin.

50 years ago there used to be more gophers around the small farm pastures. I used to watched hawks hovering a several hundred yards above the pastures. Then the hawks would go into super fast stoops that were a blur and smack the gophers they saw from way up there.

I took care of peregrine falcons for a while and the owner of the birds used them for hunting ducks. It is amazing to watch falcons smack birds at high speed.

A good example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73OvZ_l35Sw

[IronNoggin]

Years ago I flew a white phase Redtail while living in Alberta.
She was chiefly trained on pheasants, and did a fine job of that.

One of my longest lasting Buddies was the President of the North American Falconry Association for many years.
He flew Peregrines, Goshawks and Gyr's. Had a lot of fun with him over the years.

He also went off to Kazakhstan and lived with the Mongols there for a few months.
They flew Steppe Eagles (pretty close to our Golden Eagles) after wolves.
The Steppe Wolves are about 1/2 in size between our coyotes and timber wolves.
He brought back some downright amazing footage!

Regardless of how many times you've watched them in action, it never ever gets boring!

Cheers,
Nog

[nighteyes]

Years ago i had a cooper hawks nest in my backyard. I would come home grab a beer and the lawn chair and watch her pick off sparrows. like about 5 or more an evening. Those sparrows would be trembling in the bushes all day.

[IronNoggin]

I'll relate another encounter along somewhat similar lines...

I was out hunting pheasants with my dog in Southern Alberta. Driving from one area to another I spied a large group (several hundred) Canada Geese feeding right alongside an irrigation ditch. I instantly recognized that if the dog and I went up the ditch we would be out of their sight and could get basically right on top of them. So off we went to give it a try...

Got a couple hundred yards into the stalk when the horrendous noise (like thunder) of rapidly beating wings accompanied by the honks of hundreds of panicky geese ensued. Tiptoed up the bank just in time to see four geese break off from the main body and head our way. But the 4th actually wasn't a goose, rather a peregrine in a tail chase on the three larger birds. Ducking and weaving constantly, they were soon rather close. Just as the geese got over the berm edge, all three simply folded their wings and dropped into the water right in front of me with heavy crashing thuds. The falcon swung back towards the larger flock, not to be seen again.

I grinned at the dog, and thought to myself Out of the claws of one predator, and right smack into those of another. All three decided to come home with me and those grain fed wonders were certainly delicious!

Cheers,
Nog

[WV911]

The guy with the property north of me raises racing pigeons.
We quite regularly see them being picked off by hawks.
On a different note, what would kill a Raven? I found a dead one at the back of my property that seemed fairly intact except broken wing. It definitely wasn't shot. There are a lot of owls here but not sure if they would attack a raven.

[1899b]

I had to google what a Merlin is. Cool story thank you for sharing with us..

[Redfrog]

Years ago while deer hunting high in the mountains in B.C. we were having a tailgate lunch when we heard a large flock of Canadas overhead going south. A few minutes after they went out of sight we heard them coming back, flying in a perfect "v". Above them were two bald eagles circling. one of the geese on the end of the "v' broke off. An eagle stooped and hit the goose and rode it down to the ground. A few minutes later the second eagle took one that couldn't take the pressure of the formation.

[hoyt343]

Very cool to see

[Albertadiver]

Kind of a related story. Probably 5 years ago, pulling into hunting camp with the truck, it's pitch black dark, and a HUGE owl flew directly over the truck from behind and we didn't see it until the headlights illuminated it.

It was using the truck to spot mice I assume, but scared the poop out of us!

[Stinky Buffalo]

They sure are quiet, Diver! Had an owl fly right past me from behind while I was in a tree stand. One of those moments when you just stare in wonder.