Help monitoring Merlin nesting in Tompkins County, please. For a decade I have tried to find all Merlin nests in Tompkins County. I am trying to write a paper on our population: where it nests and how many there are. This is an impossible task without support from people who contribute to CayugaBirds-L and/or to eBird and/or let me know personally about sightings. Merlin have increased in abundance from 2005. Last year I found 9 nests, of which 8 fledged young. There were reports of an additional 5 territorial pairs, whose nests I never found. Perhaps they didn't stay or actually form a pair. Perhaps my poorer hearing and eyesight failed to detect them. Perhaps there were just too many for me to spend the necessary time to find the nest. I spend one or two hours on three mornings at every location for which there are two or more reports of a Merlin. With potentially 14 pair in the county that is a lot of time. I love doing it, but can't do a thorough job at it. If anyone would like to help with this survey from now until the end of July, please let me know: confergoldw...@aol.com, 607-539-6308. John Confer
| | Observed, Incubated Nests | Fledged broods, Known Nest | Nest Success Rate1 | Fledglings, No Known Nest | Territorial Pairs. No Known Nest or Fledglings2 | Sum of Pairs3 | | | | | | | | | | 2023 | 9 | 8 | 89% (8 of 9) | 0 | 5 | 14 | -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") Cayugabirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/cayugabirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) aba_DOT_org/birding-news/ Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
