Yesterday evening, between 1645 and 1820, I drove Rte 600 in s. Northampton
County looking for the White-tailed Kite. Though I could not locate that bird,
I was astonished at the numbers of Merlins visible. North of the Eastern
Shore of Virginia NWR, I counted 21 birds, often 3-4 visible at a time over the
trees (looking at first like distant swallows!), along with 4 kestrels. On the
refuge, it was really Merlin City - though it was tough to estimate, as they
zoomed back and forth, at least 13 were visible at once (!), and I estimated
35 for the entire refuge, including the land adjacent Latimer's. No telling
how many of the 56 or so Merlins might have been seen multiple times, but I
think the count is pretty near accurate. The weather was partly sunny, with
strong SSE winds that did not seem to slow the birds in their southward
movement
down the Seaside. There was also a decent flight of Merlins through most of
the
day on the Bayside, and I saw 2 at Cape Charles beach this morning (Mike
Boatwright had 4 on the CBBT yesterday). Also a second-cycle Lesser
Black-backed
Gull in the gull roost at low tide this morning at Cape Charles (Mike had one
on the CBBT as well).
Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA
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