Merlin

[PrimitiveTim]

Had the pleasure of going on a merlin hunt last weekend.  This video hardly captures how incredible this little bird is!

[JW_Halverson]

Love it!  But of course I would, duh!?!?!

I flat laughed my butt off at the 170 lb humans running themselves ragged trying to flush  2 oz. game for the 7 oz. bird! 

[Don Case]

I could watch that all day. Is the radio transmitter instead of bells? We usually have Merlins nesting within earshot of my house. One of my pleasures is the first Merlin cry in spring.

[adb]

I love Merlins. Very cool little birds and very fierce hunters. We have a pair nesting every year in our back alley. You can hear them calling all summer. When they call, the robins have a fit.

[JW_Halverson]

Hummingbirds have been known to select nesting sites CLOSE to merlin and sharpshinned hawk nests.  Hummers are too small and fast to catch, but the larger predators also keep nest robbing species scared off!

[PrimitiveTim]

Thanks for watching guys!  Y'all that have them around are so lucky!  All I have is red shoulder hawks that are always screaming about something and the occasional red tail and a few barred owls here and there.  I guess I'm happy with them though.

The radio transmitter is in case the little bird decides it wants to run off and hunt on its own.  Bells aren't really necessary on such an open area.  At least that's what I gathered.   I could totally be wrong though.  JW might know more about that.

[JW_Halverson]

Bells help find the bird if you are close, but they don't do a lot of good with a bird that is out of earshot in a split second.  You did see how fast that jalapeno bottle rocket flew, right???

Was a time only recently that transmitters couldn't be fitted to a bird that size because the transmitter weighed too much for the bird to get off the ground!!!  These new outfits are downright amazing, some even uplink to satellites every so often to allow people to log their migration across continents!

[Don Case]

That's what I thought. When I was involved umty-ump years ago bells were all there was. If the bird flew out of ear-shot that was about it. A little GPS unit would be awesome.

[JW_Halverson]

They come with smart phone apps now!  Now that is playing a serious game of Angry Birds!