ID Help: Merlins

[bcbird]

Thanks for the link, TPC.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Pretty sure Dennis has some merlin photos in his gallery ... www.pbase.com/photosbydennis ...

[allikat]

wow, the merlins in my neighborhood are giving me a great show today. Their babies must be hatched. Third time this morning I've seen the dad land on our spruce with a meal...defeathering just like Trey and Princess do   Mom just came and got it from him and took it over to the nest. Amazing to see while keeping an eye on the downtown falcon family.

WOW...what a treat!  Any way of taking some photos?

[birdcamfan]

Neat, they are kind of like mini falcons!

[pmg]

wow, the merlins in my neighborhood are giving me a great show today. Their babies must be hatched. Third time this morning I've seen the dad land on our spruce with a meal...defeathering just like Trey and Princess do   Mom just came and got it from him and took it over to the nest. Amazing to see while keeping an eye on the downtown falcon family.

[birdcamfan]

i miss our merlins but my budgies don't. they used to cringe when they heard them screeching.

[Pchemist]

gotta say, I would not miss the magpie SCREEEEECHsong one bit.  Mute magpies would be fine.

I need some Merlins.

[bcbird]

We are enjoying our Merlins very much, yet still hear lots of birdsong.  Not that we see lots of the little guys, but as TPC said we can tell they are there.

Nice thing about the merlins is that the number of crows and magpies has decreased, and their "birdsong" is not much missed!

[pmg]

We had chickadees, nuthatches, downey and hairy woodpeckers, gold and other finches, warblers, sparrows...in short, lots of birds at our feeders until the Merlin's started hunting in earnest. Tracy mentioned in one of the topics that the Merlin's don't decimate the smaller bird population in a neighborhood...the smaller birds just become more careful. I still see the woodpeckers every day. It gets pretty wild when the Merlins are out there hunting and keekeekeekeeing. I call them my 'mini Trey and mini Princess

[The Peregrine Chick]

Merlins will get talked about every year here I'm sure 

[Loriann]

seems to me we discussed the merlins last year or the year before,, we have a pair here too in our neighbors trees, and they are not shy in the least.. they torment the crows ( and the occasional raven) endlessly.. we hear the 'arguements' early in the morning and evening when it is a little quieter..    we watched a merlin eat a crow less than four feet from us while she was sitting on the neighbors fence.. we were awestruck and too afraid of spooking her off to run and get the camera..

one of the few times that my teenage son was awestruck by something.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Yup, magpies are nest robbers just like crows, blue jays, grackles, squirrels and raccoons.

[bcbird]

We also seem to have fewer Magpies.  Does that fit in the picture?

[The Peregrine Chick]

Actually the merlins moved in because you had crows and you have fewer crows because you have merlins.  These two species do not tolerate each other in their territories.  Merlins don't build nests so they steal crows' nests prior to the crows nesting in the spring. 

As for your song birds, you won't have less with the merlins there.  A couple of very eminent scientists did some great reaseach on songbird (ie prey) species population numbers in merlin territories and they found that the overall population numbers don't decrease with a pair of merlins and young in the area.  They do howver become a) much more secretive and b) much less predictable/routine in their behaviour.  Think lion on the Serengeti - the number of wildebeest don't go down overall, they just avoid the lions when they are hungry and keep an eye on them when it appears they aren't ...

[bcbird]

We have a Merlin pair nesting in a neighbourhood pine.  This is the first year we have noticed them, and interestingly, have also noticed much less crow activity this year.  We have lots of sparrows, so I guess that's why the Merlins moved in.