In mid afternoon today, numerous birds, principally Red-winged  
Blackbirds and Common Grackles, were feeding on some newly spread  
cracked corn and sunflower seeds in the backyard here in Norwich  
village. At the time I was inside and not watching closely. When  
suddenly nearly all the birds flew off, I glanced out the window and  
could see two remaining birds struggling on the ground, one on top of  
the other. Grabbing binoculars, I could see through the window that  
the bird underneath was a Common Grackle with a yellow iris and that  
the top bird was a brownish Merlin, which appeared to be not too much  
bigger than the grackle. The struggle did not last long, and then I  
could no longer see the yellow iris of the grackle. The Merlin showed  
a light line above the eye extending backward across the head and the  
single, relatively narrow, dark "moustache" as well as the streaked  
underparts. The brownish color indicates that the Merlin was either an  
adult female or a juvenile. The Merlin was able to fly off out of  
sight while carrying the presumably dead grackle.

There were surprises in this event. First, predation by an accipiter  
would have been anticipated to be more likely because Sharpies and  
Cooper's have in the past on a number of occasions visited the yard,  
whereas I had never previously detected a Merlin here. Second, this  
was an unexpectedly early spring sighting for the Merlin; Murin and  
Pfeiffer's (2002) bar graph compilation for historic Vermont records  
indicates that the species becomes slightly more prevalent, but still  
uncommon, around the beginning of April. Third, it was impressive that  
the Merlin could fly away while carrying the grackle; the Sibley 2003  
eastern guide lists a Merlin as weighing 190 grams (6.5 oz), whereas a  
grackle is reported to weigh 115 grams (4 oz).

George Clark
Norwich, VT

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