ML645246942

Observation details

Holy cow!! Came down this morning expressly to search for Heather’s Merlin from the other day but never in a million years really expected I’d find it. After searching at Rupert and coming up pretty empty handed on everything I decided to drive north to the first farmland above Rupert since Heather said her bird disappeared heading north. As I was driving I saw a small dark falcon flying along the road but behind a couple of sycamores and laughed; no way, right? I hurried and pulled off in a driveway and the second I parked it shot across the road in front of my pursuing a starling. I didn’t have time to adjust any camera settings or even aim so I just sprayed and prayed and managed one blurry photo with it in it. Enough to show a dark brown falcon with significant dark mottling along the flanks and a light supercilium against an otherwise dark head. I waited 15 minutes for it to hopefully reappear but it never did. County bird 204!!