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Merlin, Lesser Yellowlegs in Conway




Hi C'birders,

On the first day of my college's spring break I caught up on gardening and
yard work.  On the second day, my back went out.  This is a good news-bad
news occurrence - on the one hand, searing pain, on the other hand, a hurt
back pretty much mandates that I get away from desk work and go for long
theraputic walks.  It's a fair trade.

At a large lawn at the Atlantic Center in Conway, SC, (a rather
unpromising industrial park) I found a large flock of robins and stopped
to count them.

American Robins - 220 in sight at once.  During the scan, I picked up
Kildeer - 22
Savannah Sparrow - 6
Least Sandpiper - 1
peep, sp. (probably more Leasts) - 2
Red-winged Blackbird - 1 female

I left that wet field and crossed the six-foot high rise between it and
the next field, which had taller grass and no robins.  But there was a
flicker-sized bird coming right at me, low over the grass.  It turned out
to be a

Merlin - 1 hugging the ground so it could pop over the rise between the
two fields and surprise the robins, which it did (coming within 40' of me
in the process).  It chased the robins around for a good minute or two,
flying by me too close for binocs at least once, and finally circling back
and binding to a robin that had inexplicably stayed on the ground during
the first attack.  However, the robin broke loose almost immediately and
the merlin circled a while longer before I lost it, heading West.

The next field produced 

Kildeer - 18 more
Lesser Yellowlegs - 1
Peep, sp. (probably Western, but poorly seen)

And several hundred gulls, swooping over in a thin column in the heavy
wind.  

Ring-billed Gull - 350
Herring Gull - 9 (all that I could pick out were 1st year HEGUs.  Well 2nd
year by now)
Laughing Gull - 24

The rest of the walk was uneventful

Palm Warbler - 2
D.E. Junco - 1
Song Sparrow - 2
Savannah Sparrow - 2 more
Brown Thrasher - 1
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Fish Crow - 3
Turkey Vulture - 2

And non-birds:

Yellow-eared Slider - 1

and at least 5 species of butterfly.  I saw two additional species this
morning (a hairstreak and a swallowtail).  There seems to be a lot of
variety to the butterflies out now (to this unsophisticated watcher).  

Chris Hill
Conway, SC
chill@coastal.edu