There are four Merlin nests in Ithaca. The N. Titus St nest, which I thought might have been abandoned, has had lots of recent activity. Perhaps this change in parental activity reflects a change in the nest status; maybe the eggs hatched. Please do not go off the sidewalk along N. Tutus and do not stay there long, thanks.
The probable nest for the Christopher Circle/Lane appears to have been destroyed and I haven't heard any activity there for on the last two mornings. The Cascadilla Creek nesting pair seems to ignore all the nearby car and pedestrian traffic, and is quite nicely seen from the bridge over Cascadilla Creek looking west along the north side of the creek in a tall White Pine. Many local land owners know about the noisy pair and one seems to accept a rain of feathers their yard. The East Hill Cemetery nest is active, but on private grounds. Too many visitors to the immediate vicinity of the nest might lead the owners/managers to forbid monitoring the nest, as I am trying to do. This morning I discovered a nest in Dryden in the front yard of the elementary school. I followed the flight line of a Merlin seen on two mornings in April and soon heard the beautiful ka ka ka ka ka. Since the pair accepted this nest while hundreds of recess kids were screaming around the area, I think they are fairly immune to human disturbance. There is a nest on the Wells College campus. It is being monitored as part of a senior thesis, and it would be nice not to disturb this one too much. So far, there have been 9 identifiable prey, 7 of which were House Sparrows. I still would appreciate additional nest monitors. Someone did call about doing this, but the phone message got lost. Do contact me via email, thanks. Imagine: the 1980-'85 Breeding Bird Survey for New York with 300,000 person hours of field work did not find a single Merlin nest. The more recent survey found ~60, and now we have 6 known territories close to us. All of these are urban, partially because we birders spend more time in an urban situation. But no nests in wild situations doesn't represent the time we birders spend in the wilds. They certainly are an urban bird. 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/ --
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