Cayuga birders, This is a bit of a late post, but Tim Lenz and I watched and photographed a very cool Merlin yesterday morning just south of the Lake Ridge Rd./ Lake Rd. intersection south of Aurora perched on roadside utility poles and in flight. I think that this is the darkest Merlin I've ever seen in the East, and shows some characters consistent with the Pacific/ Black Merlin subspecies suckleyi, including the heavy dark helmet, heavily marked underparts, and especially the dark undersides to the primaries and secondaries with pale spotting restricted to the outer primary on each wing. I don't have much experience with these birds and don't know what it is for sure (other than it most likely hatched from a Merlin egg), but it might be worth checking out if you are in the area. Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonxie88/ Good birding, Tom
-- Thomas Brodie Johnson Ithaca, NY t...@cornell.edu mobile: 717.991.5727 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
