MOUNTLAKE TERRACE -

late morning and around 1, no action seen, but earlier, Tiffany heard a few young calling out., even the one whose voice wasn't too strong yesterday. We'll see what the rest of the day brings. However, here is a link to a great video by Tiffany (nwbirder) of yesterday's young Merlin working on the cached prey (ID?):

http://youtu.be/cR-4peqdkU4?hd=1

Tiffany has done more Merlin clips that are worth a look, especially if you miss seeing these Merlins in person. If it weren't for her and her generosity, we wouldn't have seen this nest and occupants in the first place, these views of the nest and some of the action really shed a light on things most of us wouldn't have seen otherwise. There are some very nice images that a few others of the visitors have taken, which also contribute much to our knowledge and enjoyment of the Merlins. Thanks to all of you who have shared photography and/or time at the site and your reports of what you saw.
There are quite a few other good Merlin videos on YouTube, I noticed, and some are from our area..., including one or 2 by Martyn Stewart, the nature recordist supreme! He videoed this year's fledglings in the Maple Leaf neighborhood of Seattle. Thanks so much to Martyn.


SHORELINE (ECHO LAKE) -

If you don't get (make that "see" ) any action up at the Mountlake Terrace Merlin Site, you might want to check out last year's Echo Lake nestsite and surrounding blocks. Merlin hosts from last year (Ken & Barbara, Mark & Louanne) reported having seen a lot of Merlins back in the 'old' neighborhood, getting prey from the parents, flying and calling (together and individually) and, most exciting of all, sitting together on their favorite deadtop fir. They reported 5 or 6 young Merlins sitting together on that deadtop - just like old times!! Guess the young are being shown Dad's territory and are catching on to some of the required Merlin hunting/feeding skills.

Ron B and I checked it out this morning and saw one sleepyhead on the big deadtop, one prey transfer from a parent to a juvenile and several other youngsters flying around in the vicinity of the old "Merlawn" which is now a nice little park (award-winning, I should add!).

I'd be glad to direct you to the area in an email.

There was another Merlin nest this year in another part of Shoreline, which I didn't visit, but I suspect was south of the Echo Lake site - 5 or 6 flying fledglings were reported in that area a couple of weeks ago by Ken & Barbara, and Marv and Kim included some of this site's Merlins in their BIG Merlin Day count as reported a week ago.

Many Merlins filling up our treed habitats and enriching our lives!


Still kee-kee-keeing with delight,

Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net

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