After a noticeable dearth of seeing these cool little falcons, I have been kind of lucky recently with them.
This past weekend, this merlin was alternating between perching on a fence and hopping down to eat on some leftover roadkill. After enjoying a quick snack, it took off and much to my surprise, rather than going right back to the fence opted to take the long way around right by me!
It flew eyelevel to me and not more than a few feet away. Fun stuff! It was backlit which isn’t normally desired in photography but I think the series I captured came out pretty cool. This one is my favorite.