I relocated the Merlin in Oak Hill Cemetery, Kingsport, Tennessee this morning at about 8:50am. This bird was first seen on February 18 and to my knowledge had not been seen again since until this morning. The bird was perched high in the dead top of a live spruce tree when first seen (both on 2/18 and 2/24). I went back to the cemetery at around 11:00am today (Feb 24) and again found the merlin perched high in a spruce tree. There was a lot of noise and activity around the bird which did not seem to bother it much. It sat in one tree for about 30 minutes while I walked around the base of the tree shooting video tape. As I walked back to my car he flew from his high perch to another spruce tree about 3/4 of the way up. With his back to me I doubt I would have seen him without watching him fly into the tree. He sat at this perch for about an hour while I walked up to the tree and tried to get some shots with a digital camera. Conditions were terrible for photography with very low light and some wind but I managed to get a few shots. I'll post some along with the ones from Feb. 18 later at http://photos.yahoo.com/phoxinus02 under the folder marked ETX-90. Rick Rick Phillips Kingsport, Tennessee =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================