One persistent pair of Merlins! One of the nests I am monitoring is likely by a pair that successfully raised 5 young last year in a nest about 400 m from the current nest. The current nest is in the back yard of a family with three, young kids. Two days ago, I walked up to check on the nest and found that the land owners were gone. However, a new raised swimming pool had been installed about 15 m from the base of the nest tree and a tree frequently used by the pair was cut down, which provided more sunlight for the pool. I was sure that the birds would have abandon the nest. But, there they were. The male called as he brought in food and the female responded. Amazing. So far, four of the five nests I am monitoring this year are still active. Young should be hatching about this week. Previously most failures of a nest occurred by this stage in the nesting cycle. So, I am hopeful for a better year this year than the last two years.
As eggs hatch and nestlings become noisy and demand frequent feeding, the adults become conspicuous. I don't know if any nest has nestlings yet because I don't get to every nest every day, but there will be young soon. By the way, if anyone finds a Merlin nest location, I would love to know about it off cayugabirds at con...@ithaca.edu, thanks. Kak, Kak, Kak, Kak, John -- 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/ --
