Merlins near BSNWR

[Frank Kolwicz]

I saw a second Merlin just north of Baskett Slough this morning, this one had a lot of rusty area on the breast compared to the previous one from last week that had much darker streaking on a very pale breast and no extensive, deep, rusty tint. What caught my attention, again, was behavior compared to the Kestrels in the area that I'm familliar with. This time it was in a small tree with a Kestrel nestbox that I've monitored and the Kestrel pair was nearby (copulating, by the way), but not harassing it, which is very unusual. That pair seldom tolerates woodpeckers, blackbirds and such that dare to land in that tree and I could not believe that they wouldn't go after another Kestrel. I photographed the bird, but, being a bit slow on the uptake, I didn't try to approach to a better photo distance and, so, lost an opportunity to get better images.

A friend that I see in the Baskett Slough area often, tells me that he's seen Merlins there and in Dallas 3 times in the last couple of weeks, too.

Frank
in Monmouth