Merlins are cool birds. And they eat birds for a living, so should we be surprised they're constantly strafing each other and whatever they can find, from gulls to jays to kestrels to bats to any small airborne creature?
In this vid watch one barrel roll and nearly loop the loop after a passerine, and then full frame with a Nashville it caught over the lake. After that let's play chicken with Blue Jays!
These are REALLY similar. And some of the things we use to separate Forster's Tern from Common Tern in the spring won't work in the fall. Let's talk about how to separate these two birds!
We were lucky enough to have a juvie Buff-breasted Sandpiper land in front of us during Tuesday Morning Birding. And I do mean RIGHT in front of us, click the link for the vid and the discussion!
Juvie, one-year-old, and adult Bonaparte's Gulls! I guess a person could question how separable a 2nd year bird would be, but we can debate that in the YouTube comments
Juvenile Little Gulls are one of the more striking gull plumages and one landed in front of us at Tiscornia a week ago. Click the link to see the flight shots and learn about the identification!
Christyn and I birded Maricao State Forest in Puerto Rico earlier this year. Getting there was an adventure, we'll describe it in the video.
But repeated views of Puerto Rican Todies literally in our laps made this one of the top 10 bird walks I've ever taken. Puerto Rican Tanager and Woodpeckers, along with Pearly-eyed Thrasher will all make an appearance, along with a handful of butterflies and more.
Does it still count as self-found if I was standing next to the person who spotted it? Probably not, but hey, if it gets a click.
Swallow-tailed Kites are showing up in SW Michigan and Josh, Dave Pavlik, and I (plus Christyn!) climbed a dune in Warren Dunes and found on ourselves!
Hear all about it with the kite link above...
