I made the rounds of the 4 closest Merlin nest sites to me yesterday afternoon/evening and was pleased to note quite a bit of vocalizing, chasing around, visits from adults to calling fledglings/juveniles - sometimes the adult brought prey and sometimes not, but the visit always elicited a loud response from some of the young, who would fly out of hiding from the trees, toward the approaching adult, calling "mee, mee, mee". Had the best luck up in Shoreline near and at the Echo Lake site - saw action between 3 and 5, but also got decent looks and heard vocalizations at Pinehurst and Wedgwood - had no luck at Olympic Hills. Dragonflies were in amazing abundance, so soon the young Merlins may be seen trying out some hunting skills on them. (I could have had a mouthful of them for breakfast this morning, when I almost walked into a mating pair. I'm glad I could enjoy some Cheerios instead) !

Feel free to write me offlist for any of these site locations - action at them right now is possible at almost any time of day, but is highest in the early a.m., late afternoon and early evening (the young go to roost by 8:30 -ish)

link to some so-so and quite distant photos from yesterday : https://flic.kr/s/aHsjZDj1ik the "super moon" pic was from Sat. night, when I saw no Merlins.

Kee kee kee !

Barb Deihl
Matthews Beach Neighborhood - NE Seattle
barbdeihl at comcast.net
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