Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Pigeon Hawk

A very heavily cropped photo of one of a pair of Merlins I saw at the Erlton/Roxboro Natural Area on July 27th. These birds of prey were either harassing a group of Crows or else being harassed - or maybe they were just having "fun". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(bird)

We were so lucky to see this beautiful female Merlin on our Calgary Christmas Bird Count on Sunday. This was the 59th Calgary Christmas Bird Count and apparently almost 200 people took part in it, with 102 feeder-watchers and 93 birders in the field. There were just four of us covering one particular area of several communities in the north east part of the city. It was a case of driving and then walking a block or two, driving and walking and so on for the whole day, which suited me after walking for hours the day before on the Banff/Canmore (in the Rocky Mountains) Bird Count! This Merlin was perched in a tree in someone's front garden and just sat there while a couple of us took photos. The Merlin is 24–33 cm (9.5–13 in) long with a 50–67 cm (20–26 in) wingspan. At the end of the day, we went to a most enjoyable, wrap-up chili (delicious!) supper, so that all the results of the day could be assembled. 18x zoomed and heavily cropped : )

This is a photo from earlier this year, taken at the Coaldale Bird of Prey Centre, near Lethbridge, southern Alberta. The Centre is a wonderful place that rescues and tries to rehabilitate injured birds of prey. Those that are able to be released are released and those that are injured too severely are kept and used in an educational way. Reckoned it was way more than time that I posted a photo of a bird, LOL! Once winter arrives, that is when I take most of my bird photos - in the spring and summer, botany tends to take over : )