Merlin. “It’s mine, I killed it and now I’m going to eat it!” I made this image yesterday on my way home from my gallery in Arroyo Seco. I spotted the raptor on the fence post as I drove along. I pulled over, reversed about 100 feet and wound down my window. I said to myself, ‘that’s a male Merlin falcon, perhaps a juvenile’. I stopped about 20 feet away and while I was changing lenses I observed the Merlin tear at a dead bird’s chest … at least I’m pretty sure it was dead. I made about a dozen images, each, very much like this one. A few minutes later when a pickup came whipping by me, scaring the Merlin, the raptor took off clenching it’s prey. This evening I wrote to my friend Jean-Luc Catron, author of Raptors of New Mexico to confirm my ID of the bird. This is his reply … “What a beautiful photo!! You are right, it is a merlin, and because of the muted facial markings I can also say that it belongs to the subspecies richardsonii (prairie or Richardson’s merlin). It is a male because of the blue gray dorsal plumage”. Thank you Jean-Luc. Thank you for looking. G
“It’s mine, I killed it and now I’m going to eat it!”
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8 thoughts on ““It’s mine, I killed it and now I’m going to eat it!””
I’ve been wondering where my Merlin was. Thanks for updating me on his travels. 🙂
He’s a busy little traveling merlin.
Amazing. Every morning while I plan my hectic life, I await your window to the landscape that I long to be.
Thank you.
Thank you Holly. I’m honored. Thank you. G
stunning
Thank you CheyAnne and thanks for looking. G
Incredible the way you see a softened reality of the high desert!
Thank you William for this is a very nice compliment, for writing and for continuing to look. My best to you. G