On Saturday in the early evening, at the gate of the Grassroots festival
as crowds of people were streaming in, a Merlin started calling
continuously for many seconds - 10? 15? It came into view from the west
and was chasing a crow and diving at it. They were maybe 30' above the
tree tops and I had no binoculars but they were easy to see, passing
directly overhead. The crow was twisting and dodging, flying evasively
- one of the crow's tail feathers came loose & floated away so
presumably the merlin was grabbing at it. I don't remember hearing the
crow vocalize but the merlin never stopped. They passed over Smith
Woods and then the merlin turned off to the north. My impression was
extreme aggression by the merlin and retreat by the crow but I only saw
them for maybe 5 seconds, it was pretty quick.
Anyone know if this is territorial defense or something else? Does the
merlin defend territory after its young have fledged? Is it some form
of very rough inter-species play? I found this report in Bent:
... Mr. Brewster (1925) witnessed the following peculiar behavior of a
pigeon hawk:
He was either playing or fighting with a Crow, the former I thought,
for although the behavior of both birds was rough and aggressive, it
seemed to represent mutual participation in a sportive game curiously
regulated and much enjoyed. Thus the successive lungings and chasings
were not either one-sided or haphazard, but so conducted that each
bird alternately took the part of pursuer and pursued, and when
enacting the latter role gave way at once, or after the merest
pretense of restance, to flee as if for its life, dodging and
twisting; yet it was prompt enough to rejoin the other bird at the end
of such a bout, when the two would rest awhile on the same stub,
perching only a few feet apart and facing one another, perhaps not
without some mutual distrust. During these aerial evolutions the Hawk
screamed and the Crow uttered a rolling croak, almost incessantly.
They separated and flew off in different directions when my presence
was finally discovered.
Has anyone else witnessed 'play' like this? Alternatively do merlins
continue to attack crows after their young fledge?
Alicia
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