You are about to embark on a wonderful adventure I had this summer. Monitoring a merlin nest in Barrie Ontario. Of all places,in a subdivision. A beautiful subdivision with a little park called Neilsons Lookout. And what a lookout the merlins had. A georgeous view of Kempenfelt Bay. A handful of big Jack Pines in which they chose to nest in one. A few white pines. Friendly people. Who could ask for more. Oh and of coarse a lot of really good eats.With all these wonderful people watching out for you and your little ones. It was easy to catch up when I as gone. You could call it the neighbourhood merlin watch if you like. In this book I will try my best to answer a few unanswered questions. I was asked many questions. Great questions at that. I will tell you what I saw on my documentation. You will get a play by play of the upbringing of the 4 hatchlings and their adventures into adulthood. You will be amazed as I was on how quickly those little merlins grew and how quickly that plumage turned from little white fluffballs to adult. The ups and downs of the first flights to the first success in eating on a branch without dropping the prey. Look out below! I hope when you are done reading this adventure. You to felt like you were there. As many were in fact. These merlins became the talk of the town so to speak. I wonder if they knew how special and popular they really were as they went about their daily living and teaching of the 4 beautiful youngsters. Enjoy!
On Saturday August 6th there was an article in the Barrie Examiner on these merlins. I wrote the article and Ian Mcinroy rewrote to fit in the paper with a few photos of mine. And also the Innisfil Journal on Friday August,5th. A news read the article and wanted to meet me at the nest sight and interview me. Unfortunatly I wrote the article after they had fledged in order to protect the nesting birds. So maybe in the future,with something else. We'll see. But this nest was a fantastic learning experience. I hope you enjoy this family as much as I did.
Female merlin,May 7th,2011.
