29 January 2022

When the clouds broke up Tuesday afternoon I walked to Schenley Park for a beautiful sunset with a plan to look at the tops of the things.

If I’m lucky, in winter I find as many as three merlins perched at the tops of bare trees half an hour before sunset.

The merlins don’t watch the sky. Instead they focus on potential prey, the small birds that roost in the conifers and bushes between Holes 1, 17 and 18.

On Tuesday I found two merlins: one on a dead snag, the other in the top branches of the tallest tree across the fairway, but he was too hidden for a cellphone photo. (Click on the photo to see a circle around the first merlin.)

While looking at the tops of things, I found a pair of red-tailed hawks on a parking lot light last Saturday, silhouetted against the sky. This was not a very tall pole but the red-tails felt comfortable that no one was paying attention while one of them ate a squirrel.

You might find something fun if you Keep Looking Up.

(photos by Kate St. John)