I received an email last night informing me that there might be a Merlin family in the vicinity of the Washington and Seminary St. intersection in Middlebury. I went to investigate this morning and was able to find them fairly easily on the south east side of the intersection. At first I spotted only one perched in a Black Locust tree, but when I walked a bit further down to change perspectives I could see another one perched below it. This one was clearly a fledgling and still had some pin feathers on the top of its head. The first Merlin then flew across to another tree where it revealed the location of a third bird, and then after a while flew back near its original perch landing near a fourth bird which had been previously hidden by leaves. All of this was was done with some pretty consistent calling sounds by several of the birds. After about a half hour an Adult Merlin came in carrying a small bird in its talons, and all four of the birds I had seen previously flocked to it to receive the meal. Unfortunately I could not see them as they were being fed. What I believe I was seeing was four fledglings in total and one adult.
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Ron Payne
Middlebury, VT
----- Forwarded message from [log in to unmask] -----
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2011 08:39:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: [log in to unmask]
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: eBird Report - Washington x Seminary, Jul 5, 2011
To: [log in to unmask]
Washington x Seminary, Addison, US-VT
Jul 5, 2011 7:10 AM - 8:10 AM
Protocol: Stationary
13 species
Merlin 5 Juveniles all recently fledged. One adult carrying food.
Chimney Swift 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 3
Tufted Titmouse 1
American Robin 3
European Starling 2
Common Yellowthroat 1
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 3
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Common Grackle 2
American Goldfinch 1
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://ebird.org/vt)
----- End forwarded message -----
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