I sure wish you could export some of those Merlins to me up in Auburn. I have tons of House Sparrows for them to eat.
Sent from my iPad > On Jul 28, 2015, at 10:54 PM, Dave Nutter <nutter.d...@me.com> wrote: > > Nestlings may have fledged, but Merlins still have to eat and hunt. Yesterday > (Monday 27 July) at 9:32am I was on Meadow Street waiting to turn left onto > Buffalo Street by the FastRack gas station when I heard a short succession of > unidentified agitated call notes to my left. Immediately afterward I saw a > MERLIN carrying small prey and flying from near the source of the sound, > proceeding northeast low over Joe's Restaurant, across Meadow Street, then > lost to view among treetops. Was the nest by the Finger Lakes Land Trust > office successful? That's the direction it went. I don't know whether the > sound was from the Merlin, its prey, its prey's parent, or another witness. > > By the way, I haven't noticed an actual shortage of House Sparrows yet, and > to me Merlins seem like a good trade for them so far. > --Dave Nutter > >> On Jul 28, 2015, at 09:22 AM, John Confer <con...@ithaca.edu> wrote: >> >> Thanks to assistance from participants in the cayugabirds-l, Mark Witmer, >> Maddie Ulinski, and I were able to monitor 7 Merlin nests this >> spring-summer. The Briarwood Lane nest fledged the third of three nestlings >> this morning (28 July). Five nests were in Ithaca, one in Dryden and one of >> Wells College campus. Three of the nests were predated. Although this is a >> statistically tiny sample, it provides a very high rate of nest failure in >> comparison to other, large surveys. The dominant prey species at all nests >> was the House Sparrow. Interestingly, House Sparrows have been declining >> very rapidly, a decline that started long before Merlin started to nest and >> increase in abundance in New York. >> >> It is nice to have our little urban falcon zipping around the town/city, >> picking off a lot of species but mostly House Sparrows. >> >> Thanks again for directing us to nest locations. >> >> John, Mark, and Maddie >> -- > > -- > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > Welcome and Basics > Rules and Information > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > Archives: > The Mail Archive > Surfbirds > BirdingOnThe.Net > Please submit your observations to eBird! > -- > <confer.vcf> -- 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/ --
