I haven’t posted about the MERLINS lately, but I have been seeing and/or hearing them just about every day since they arrived in mid-May. The nest was visible from my backyard for a very short time, but once the trees leafed out, I could no longer see it.
This morning, around 6 AM, I heard one of the Merlins calling and quickly located it. It was perched in a tree and I saw that it had a small bird in its talons. It began to pluck the bird and then flew towards the nest tree, disappearing from my view. There was another bird calling from the direction the Merlin flew, and I suspected that it might be a juvenile. I decided to take a walk down the street to see if I could see the nest from the road. As I approached the nest tree along Rt 49, one of the adults started calling and flying around, the intensity of its call growing stronger as I neared the nest tree. I quickly spotted the reason for the Merlin’s increased agitation – there was a fledgling perched on a branch in a tree adjacent to the nest tree. I only saw and heard 1 fledgling, and I didn’t stick around all that long to search for another. I was satisfied to see the one. I snapped a few quick photos and left the area. It was nice to see that the Merlin pair succeeded after failing in their nesting attempt last year. Hopefully, this will become an annual occurrence here. Mickey Scilingo Constantia Oswego County, NY [email protected] 315-679-6299 -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
