And I had a great Merlin-crow interaction near Hile School rd and Ed Hill Rd intersection on Tuesday. A youngish crow may have begun it because I first saw it harrying and giving low vocalizations toward the merlin, but the merlin, a male by back plumage, turned the tables and became the swooping diving aggressor. It left after several minutes then returned to go straight after a (the?) crow again. I have never seen such protracted interactions that were not around an active crow nest. Merlin would fly high above and dive then chase the crow down toward the ground until the crow would ramp up its flight effort to make it up among field edge tree branches.
I wonder if merlins are scoping the nesting options for next spring—-“prospecting” as it is genetically called. Anne Sent from my iPhone > On Aug 25, 2021, at 7:56 AM, Susan Stevens Suarez <s...@cornell.edu> wrote: > > For what it’s worth, the Merlin Sound ID on my iPhone picked up a Merlin > downhill from the factory 2.5 weeks ago. > Susan Suarez > >> On Aug 25, 2021, at 7:10 AM, Stanley Scharf <stanley.sch...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> For the past two plus weeks what appears to be a Merlin has been screaming >> its raucous call in the area of the Emerson factory on South Hill in >> Ithaca. I don't know if it's a male or female.. I think I hear it calling >> now. >> >> I once got a good view of its strong flight over Emerson.. >> S. >> >> >> -- >> Cayugabirds-L List Info: >> Welcome and Basics >> Rules and Information >> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave >> Archives: >> The Mail Archive >> Surfbirds >> BirdingOnThe.Net >> Please submit your observations to eBird! >> -- > > -- > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > Welcome and Basics > Rules and Information > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > Archives: > The Mail Archive > Surfbirds > BirdingOnThe.Net > Please submit your observations to eBird! > -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
