Nature
Notes for July 31, 2015
“Ki-ki-ki-kee”
sounded from outside my back window. The 2015 hatch of young Merlins have taken
flight. Although they could be heard on a number of occasions in the west end
of Port Hope, I never did find the nest this year.
Merlins
are a small falcon, about the same size as an American Kestrel, but a bit
bulkier. As with most birds of prey, the females are bigger than the males.
Adult male Merlins have gray backs, streaked underparts and a banded tail.
Adult females have brown backs. The young birds resemble the females in
plumage. The dark “mustache” mark on the face is much less pronounced in
Merlins than it is in other falcons.
photo © Rob Lonsberry Photography
The name “Merlin” comes from esmerillon,
the old French name for the species. Merlins used to be called “pigeon hawks”
because in flight they look somewhat pigeon-like. Their species name, columbarius,
is also a reference to pigeons.
Late
19th and early 20th records for Merlins in southern
Ontario were mostly of migrating birds. At that time, this species nested
primarily in the boreal forest.
During
the 1950s and 1960s, Merlin populations plummeted due to exposure to DDT. This
species was placed on the National Audubon Society’s Blue List from 1972 to
1981. By the mid-1980s, Merlins were showing some recovery, but were still not
up to historic levels.
In
the first Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas, the nesting range was shown as from Algonquin
Park and north to the tree line. However, in the twenty years between atlases,
the range of this species expanded southward and included urban sites as well
as the boreal wilderness. In fact, the second Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas
reported that the probability of encountering Merlins in Ontario had increased
100%!
One
of these records was in Port Hope, where a nesting pair was discovered on
Bloomsgrove Avenue in April 2004. This pair had commandeered an old crow nest
and was discovered while evicting the crows – quite a noisy event. The nest
fledged two chicks that year.
A
couple of years earlier, a Merlin pair had been discovered nesting at
Presqu’ile Provincial Park. By 2005, Merlin nests were being discovered several
places in Northumberland, in both Port Hope and Cobourg. They seem well
established now.
Merlins
do not build their own nests, but take over nests of crows, other raptors or
sometimes squirrel dreys. They prefer to nest in coniferous trees, but there
are records of nests on the ground. Although they usually nest in trees, they
need open habitats adjacent to the nest in which to hunt.
Merlins
prey primarily on other birds, so the presence of a nest is often detected by piles
of feathers under the “plucking” perch. They are very ambitious in their choice
of prey and will attack birds almost as big as themselves.
An
increasing number of Merlins spend the winter in southern Ontario, but most
migrate. Some of these travel as far south as South America.
Medieval falconers called Merlins
“lady hawks”. They were used by European noblewomen for sport to hunt Skylarks.
Merlins are still popular with falconers, who use them to hunt quarry that
ranges from sparrow-sized to dove-sized.
According to banding records, the
oldest known Merlin was at least 11 years, 11 months old. It was banded as an
adult in New York in 1982 and recovered in New Brunswick in 1993.
Since the young are quite noisy this
time of year, readers have a good chance of detecting a Merlin, if there was a
nest in their area. Good luck in your search.
