[obol] Re: More on Coos Bay Merlin 7/26/2014
- From: Wayne Hoffman <whoffman@xxxxxxxx>
- To: timrodenkirk@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 19:19:38 -0700
Hi -
It is always worth while, although often not possible, to try to determine
age and sex of out-of-season birds where immatures and/or the two sexes are
distinguishable.
With a Merlin, if you could have determined back color (bluish back = adult
male. brown = female or immature) you are a step toward answering your
question. Ad. Females can be distinguished from young birds with
difficulty.
In Peregrines, spring and summer second-year birds can be distinguished
from first-year and from adults by wing molt status. I have not been able
to find out if this is also the case with Merlins, but I kind of doubt it.
Wayne
On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 4:44 PM, Tim Rodenkirk <timrodenkirk@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> I thought the MERLIN I saw on the N. Spit of Coos Bay today was early so I
> checked the Coos records. It turns out that there are three other July
> records. In Coos, this species normally disappears in the spring in early
> May, our latest spring record is 1 June 2000 at New River (TR). In the fall
> most migrants do not show up until late August or early September. Our
> earliest August record is a bird seen out on the North Spit on 6 Aug 2003
> (TR). The three July records are as follows:
>
> One on the North Spit on 19 July 1998 (D. Lauten).
> One at Bandon Marsh NWR on 24 July 2002 (D. Lauten, K, Castelein).
> And one at the North Spit on 11 July 2008 (TR).
>
> These really early records may well be failed breeders or immature birds
> that never migrate north to their breeding grounds, hard to say? Anyhow,
> July records anywhere in Oregon are rare. Last I remember there were no
> breeding records in Oregon.
>
>
> Happy birding!
> Tim R
> Coos Bay
>
>
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