Karen and I went around the lake for the first time in maybe a year. We had three birding goals.
1) Enjoy the waterfowl migration 2) Find a Snowy Owl, FYO for us. 3) Confirm Merlin and nest 1) That was easy. 2) 2 PM, 23 March. SNOW north of airport about 50 m north of Chadwick Rd., and about 500 m northeast of the end of the runway. Creamy white bird - beautiful, without head marking indicating previous banding. Bird was in some stumps and disturbed soil where a fence line of trees was being removed. 3) Thanks to one hint, I found a male Merlin near a prbable nest. The male hung around as others have done when I knew thay had an active nest, doing what I call "nest guarding". I appreciate input from others. I minimize trips to a nest to data collection, and do not share location of nests until eggs have hatched and the birds almost certainly will not desert due to humans watching. Thanks for the input from several. 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/ --
