Lucky for me I was looking at my feet when this happened. Otherwise I may
have missed it. At the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum this morning, a Merlin
soared just above the ground right by me. His wing came a few inches from my
shoe. I haven't had that close of an encounter with a raptor since I was 11
and a Northern Goshawk nearly scalped me in Colorado.
Arboretum count
Virginia Rail 2 (calling back and forth)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Cooper's Hawk 1
Great Horned Owl 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Red-eyed Vireo 2 (1 presumably the same that I saw on Wed. as he was in the
same bush)
Brown Creeper 2
Winter Wren 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 9
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 12
Hermit Thrush 2
Tennessee Warbler 2 (1 male in full breeding plumage with a little down hanging
loosely from below his wing)
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 20
Palm Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Lincoln's Sparrow 3
White-crowned Sparrow 1
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