Great find! I think keeping it off the airwaves was the correct course of
action seeing as without disturbance they only fledged a single offspring.
Ronan O’Carra
Lexington
On Tue, Aug 2, 2022 at 8:33 AM Jeff Sole <jdsole56@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Great find and documentation!
Jeff Sole
Franklin County
On Tue, Aug 2, 2022 at 8:27 AM <brainard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Back in May, Jackie Elmore observed a pair of lingering Merlins on the
east side of Louisville, and he noted courtship behavior and copulation.
The pair lingered through May, and during June and July Jackie, Mark
Monroe, and I monitored their activities. It turned out they had a nest
high in a mature pine tree. The nest was mostly hidden so we could not tell
exactly what was going on, but about about two weeks ago, a young bird
fledged from the nest. It was sort of disappointing that only one young
survived to fledge but the fact that the pair nested successfully is
remarkable in an historical context (being a first for the state).
Back in June we made the difficult decision not to post a location or
other information about the pair. Recent stories of disturbance to
sensitive nesting birds made us nervous. Also, the fact that observations
had to be made entirely from private property convinced us to opt for this
approach. Being a bird that most people see sort of regularly during the
spring, fall, and winter, we hope that all will understand our caution.
Just ten years ago this occurrence would have been considered impossible,
but Merlins have been expanding south during the breeding season in recent
years. A pair has nested at Bloomington, Indiana, the past two years, and a
pair nested three years in a row at Columbus, Ohio, 2019-2021. This year
there is also a nesting pair at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is just what
is showing in eBird, so there may be a few others in the general region.
I've heard about a couple of reports in southern Michigan, for example.
Obviously, this pair could be part of a small nesting population, and
expanded breeding *might* be explaining in part the remarkable increase in
the number of locally wintering Merlins. Louisville is now getting 10 or
more on the annual CBC. Keep your eyes and ears open for summer Merlins.
The Louisville pair stayed right in a very small nesting territory, so they
don't move around a lot. However, especially the male was quite vocal. The
southern birds are apparently almost exclusively using large evergreens in
which to nest. They do not build their own nest but use the old nest of a
crow or hawk.
BPB/JBE/MSM, Louisville
