Friends, I am very Thankful for the birds of Hawk Ridge and Crex Meadows, who keep me busy photographing the wildness.  So back to Hawk Ridge for another Hawk lesson, or in this case, a Falcon lesson.  The portrait of the Merlin below shows an open beak and the notches in the cutting edge of the beak that fit together when the bird is killing his prey.  These interlocking notches are the tomial tooth of the falcons.  Hawks may have the upper notch but do not have the corresponding notch on the lower edge.  The higher magnification image shows this region to dramatize the tomial tooth. til Tomorrow MJ