Hi Folks, I got two more Merlin reports since I posted the county-wide preliminary total just yesterday. Wow. We now have a total of 12 known pairs, 9 of which fledged young for the year for the county. There is even the possibility of a late renest for one of the failed nests, as happened last year. The county-wide survey has gone from 2 in 2014 to 12 this year, the highest count so far. Bill and John (another John) led me to a group of fledged young on Brandywine Rd. this morning. One of the new reports was in Dryden. Dryden now has had known pairs for 8 of the last 9 years, thanks to Suzanne. I have submitted an article on Merlin to a science journal. In the acknowledgement I note that "The assistance of the Ithaca birding community has been key to the discovery of many Merlin nests." This is certainly one of the best places in the world to do a county-wide survey for a raptor. Got to love the local birders. John Confer --
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/ --
