Recently, friends of ours who live on the shore of Lake Superior, called to tell me about a Merlin nest in their backyard. Merlins are raptors in the falcon family about the size of a pigeon. I call them "feathered bullets" because of their amazing speed and maneuverability. I have never had an opportunity to view a Merlin close up, only as they soared over my head on our ridge. The prospect of seeing these birds fledge was positively enchanting to me.
Merlins set up shop in vacant crow and hawk nests, they do not build their own. The nest is located in a huge spruce tree directly behind their house. It is nearly at the top of the tree and contained three noisy chicks, "peeping" constantly for mother to bring them lunch. One of the chicks hopped further out on a branch, possibly to get the first shot at mother Merlin's next food trip.
My friend put a ladder up on the side of his house, so I could get up on the roof for closer shots. I took a number of shots of the chick on the branch and eventually got a shot of all three on the same branch.
I took the first Merlin photo on July 6 and the last one on July 19; it was thirteen days of intriguing raptor observations. I spent hours each day waiting for a flying shot of mother coming in from the hunt. She came in like a lightning bolt and because of the terrain, it was impossible to get a good shot. All I got was a lot of wings flapping in the spruce branches. As the days and hours passed, I ended up with a pretty good photo chronicle of their growth and environment.
I got to observe unending trips of the adult birds bringing in food for the fledglings.
The fledglings made their first flights to surrounding spruce and dead birch trees.
Eventually they found the rocky shores of Lake Superior, bathing and enjoying the water pooled from the surf.
The finally occurred when all three fledglings soared from tree to tree and across a bay of Lake Superior.
Merlins I learned, are a very unique bird... they are deadly hunters of small birds and they are fearless. My friends observed them dive bombing a Great Blue Heron, literally running him out of their territory across a bay of Lake Superior. Each day they roamed farther from their nest tree; I never witnessed them hunting on their own... but I am certain that one sunny spring day, I will see one or more... rocketing above the shores of Lake Superior.
"No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings"~ William Blake
I took the first Merlin photo on July 6 and the last one on July 19; it was thirteen days of intriguing raptor observations. I spent hours each day waiting for a flying shot of mother coming in from the hunt. She came in like a lightning bolt and because of the terrain, it was impossible to get a good shot. All I got was a lot of wings flapping in the spruce branches. As the days and hours passed, I ended up with a pretty good photo chronicle of their growth and environment.
I got to observe unending trips of the adult birds bringing in food for the fledglings.
The fledglings made their first flights to surrounding spruce and dead birch trees.
Eventually they found the rocky shores of Lake Superior, bathing and enjoying the water pooled from the surf.
The finally occurred when all three fledglings soared from tree to tree and across a bay of Lake Superior.
Merlins I learned, are a very unique bird... they are deadly hunters of small birds and they are fearless. My friends observed them dive bombing a Great Blue Heron, literally running him out of their territory across a bay of Lake Superior. Each day they roamed farther from their nest tree; I never witnessed them hunting on their own... but I am certain that one sunny spring day, I will see one or more... rocketing above the shores of Lake Superior.
"No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings"~ William Blake
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