Friday July 22nd. The days events.

Arrival time this morning was 8:13 am.
Mom is in the tree nearby with one babe. It seems the others have flown to a nearby tree. One flew back but I missed it. It is very active around the nest now. And very vocal.The second bird flew back and landed with a little bit of a rough landing in the tree. It latched onto a branch and was hanging upside down briefly. A tired but proud Mom was just sitting nearby preening her beautiful wings while the kids practiced their flights. Keeping a keen eye on her eyas the whole time. I am seeing 3 babes now. All calling back and forth to one another.

8:38

All is quiet now. They all have their eyes closed and are having a much deserved rest.

8:42

Awake again, 2 flew to the other tree behind the house next to the park.

9:00

Another one flew and it seems the next house over has a very popular tree in the backyard.

9:20

Vocalizing and flying. Mom & babe flying together. Others are still in the tree resting. They are flying long distances now and doing great.

9:35

Mom flew in with food again. She flew to the nest. Eyas really loud on her arrival. A bit of flitting about but they didn't follow her to the nest. You could hear her chipping from the nest to get over here for your meal. But they all stayed put, calling out,flapping about wanting their meal. She then took the food in her mouth and flew to the end of a dead branch. She tried to hand it off to one of her eyas. A tug of war took place but it appeared the young bird did not want the meal this time. It was just enjoying playing with mom. Mom took the food and flew away to another branch. She flew to the others and one eagerly took the meal from her. But in a few minutes it dropped the little bird to the ground. A meal lost. It lay there motionless prepared for eating. A meal and a little life lost.

10:59

All is quiet again around the nest area. A lot of preening going on amongst the family of merlins. They seem quite content. We have blue jays,cardinals, a family of great creasted flycatchers and song sparrows around the park. None seem to feel threatened by the merlins. They clearly knew it was not dinner time for the merlin family. Mom & Dad are seen flying around followed by one young merlin at this time. It is doing fabulous.

10:08

Can hear some soft chipping. A man from up the street came to see what I was doing and didn't even know the merlin family was here. But having seen me over and over. He was eager to see what I was shooting. He got a good look at the family in the tree and was in aw of their beauty. He called me the Jane Goodall of the birds. He loved that I was doing this and keeping it quiet to protect the family and neighbouring people from hords of possible people coming from all over to see the family. I consider myself very lucky. But I love what I do. One local man told me of an incident years ago when he had a yellow rumped warbler in December at his feeder. Something that didn't happen back in those days. The word got out and before he knew it there were so many birders on his front lawn chasing the bird. Which as he pointed out disappeared quickly after that invasion. He was thoroughly annoyed that people would do such a thing. And today. That can even be worse with birders and photographers from all over the place. So I do not give out my locations. And I try to be private.

10:11

A lot of vocalizing around again but we have a nice northern flicker, phobee and chickadees around.

11:14

More food arrived via Mom. She gave it over to one of her eyas and it took it with ease. It actually mantled over the little bird that was to be it's meal. This time it was not prepared. The eyas had to do the work itself to get it's meal. It was so amazing to watch this happenening right in front of me in full view. The mother handed it over and sat there for a few minutes and watched as her young merlin manteled the food from it's mother. This is my meal. They are growing and learning very quickly. I had another visit from the lady across the road. She kept me updated on the days I wasn't there. And she hadn't realized it was the young she was seeing flying all over. They were landing in her backyard and calling to each other. She said it was very noisy. And very wonderful.
This nest has had so much attention from the nearby neighbours. And I have visitors every day I am there. They come to see how the merlin family is doing. Ask a lot of questions and taking it all in. One lady ran home and dragged her grandkids out of bed to come and see them. Another man called his wife and told her to get over there to see something very special. They were all a little upset about the little nestlings and birds that were dissappearing. But when they saw the reason why. They all told me that seeing these new lives of these birds of prey right in their backyard,well it was okay to loose a few songbirds. They were so amazed at this family. How fast it grew, how they were taught by mostly Mom to fly to hunt etc. How Dad was really kept away by Mom. She met him up the street every time he brought food to her. She would not let him near the nest. He didn't come into the picture again until the babes were big and flying. He was there feeding her in the nest up until the eggs all hatched and then band from that area. I would often see him leaving as I arrived after bringing in food for his mate at the nest. After hatching took place he would call to her upon his arrival and she quickly flew to meet him and get the food from him and back to the nest. They would exchange the food in mid air while in flight. Always a very fast process I never got a shot of. You never knew were it was going to happen. But it was incredible to see. These are very fast flyers. At first the little birds were brought in with the heads on and later on with the heads off. Mom would always have her little bit first before the young were handed the food. We have 2 males and 2 female eyas. The size and plumage as they grew was the telltale signs of that information. Our little one finished his meal and settled in for a nice ciesta.

11:49

1 babe is starting to vocalize a wee bit. Can really hear the crow family up the street. I think maybe that is what disturbed the young merlin. All is quiet soon after again and it clouded over and a nice breeze came up. Silence.

11:58

Some commotion across the street. 2 merlins are in flight. One flies to the top of a pine. It is Mom and her first born who is a bit farther along than the others. She did her first exchange to her young bird in flight and it almost dropped the bird. But it managed to catch it and land with a bit of difficulty in the tree across the way. It flitted about from branch to branch and then gathered up the prey and flew over and met Mom again and they flew off. Awesome.

12:20

A lot of action today,hard to pull myself away. All young out of the nest. Flying around and hard to keep track of. Has been a long day. A very rewarding day from my view. So much progress has been made by the young eyas today. A lot of neighborhood people are watching them now. Everyone is hungry and Mom & Dad are keeping very busy bringing in food to them. Have put in 30 hours so far watching this nest. Wonderful experience. I have learned so much from the merlin family and in turn taught a lot to others about them. Another wonderful nest watch for 2011.