Merlin dervish

The wee fellow in the accompanying photo was making quite a bit of noise outside our place this morning, nice of him to pose a bit while a took a couple of snaps.

With pressing deeds to be done, I was unable to get out to do any birding until mid afternoon today and eventually dropped by the estuary for an hour or so.
I hadn't even turned the engine off when a harrier drifted in front of the car and over the river. Once I'd got out of the car a short-eared owl came by, hunting over the grassy area between the car park and the big oak. Nice!
A couple of guys were out wildfowling on the marsh so the ducks were miles out. A flock of red-winged blackbirds chattered around the place and a lone ruby-crowned kinglet came to check out my pishing technique.
From the viewing platform over the next hour I noted 2 short-eared owls and 3 northern harriers including a 'new' male that I haven't seen previously. This too is a sub-adult bird though it has retained considerably more juvenile plumage than the other male that I regularly see.
A Cooper's hawk came through scattering the juncos and blackbirds while a red-tailed hawk decided to add itself to the list of raptors seen.
As I returned to the parking area 6 western meadowlark were flushed from the grassy area between the oak and the car.