Having followed the recent string of reports on the Hanover golf course 
Merlins, at 8:30 am this morning I checked the Wilder boat landing, 
where Kent McFarland and I had watched a Merlin pair nest-building on 
April 10.  Subsequent visits during May by both of us, and other 
observers, had not produced additional sightings of the pair, leading me 
to wonder if they had failed to nest.  However, I hadn't been back there 
since mid-May to check.

This morning, two juveniles were perched quietly on a large dead pine 
snag across the river from the boat landing.  I waited for 15 minutes in 
hopes that an adult would come by to feed them, but none did.   From the 
concrete abutment at the end of the point just below the boat landing, 
the snag is slightly upriver on the NH shore, below a cluster of large 
emergent pines on a bluff above, which is where Kent and I observed the 
nest in April.  We had seen one of the adults perched on the same snag 
in April, so it is probably a good spot to search for them.  Since the 
young have obviously fledged, the family may not stay around long. 

In addition to 15 Mallards, there was also a female or young Blue-winged 
Teal along the NH shore.

Chris

-- 
****************
Chris Rimmer
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
P.O. Box 420
Norwich, VT 05055
802-649-1431 ext. 1
www.vtecostudies.org

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