For the past few weeks, several times a day, I have been forced to quickly abandon whatever I’m doing in the house and run outside. No, it’s not an earthquake.
We have (at least) four merlins playing in the sky above my house, all calling me with their continual ‘kee kee kee.’ They’re making so much noise even non-birdwatchers have asked me what they are. Of course as a birder, I have to go out every time they call me.
A few evenings ago I was reading on the back deck. When I heard a house sparrow kerfuffle, I looked up just in time to see a merlin fly past, about 10 feet from where I was sitting. This is the second time this has happened while I’ve been sitting on that deck. Last time he missed my head by inches.
When I took my dog for a walk one morning, three merlins erupted out of the long grass beside the path, doing their best grey partridge imitation.
With all these sightings, I still don’t have a decent picture of a merlin. These little falcons are FAST! I did manage to get a video of one sitting in my spruce trees, ‘kee kee kee-ing’ away. I apologize for the quality, but he was sitting on the east side of my yard in the morning. I knew I was shooting toward the sun, but I wanted to get him on tape when he was sitting still.
Welcome to my world.
It happened so fast I didn’t have time to duck. Not sure which one of us was more surprised…
I think your noisy neighbors have relatives in my neighborhood too 🙂 A Merlin rushing by your head must have made you duck!