Please see picture gallery below – if you have any pix please send to sheilaelliot@yahoo.com

Bird of the Month for September is  the Merlin: below by Ben Kolstad’s article in September  KITE.:

Bird of the Month for Sept: Merlin.

The Merlin (Falco columbarius) is a small falcon, although last month’s BotM, American Kestrel, is smaller. However, they are both small falcons, and are frequently confused by those who don’t bother to count the number of stripes on the mustache: Kestrels have two, merlins have one. Another way to keep them separate in your mind is to think of their scientific names, or even their old colloquial names: the Merlin is the pigeon hawk (columbarius), while the slightly smaller kestrel, frequently called a sparrow hawk back in the day, chases smaller prey.

According to the Cornell Lab’s website, “Merlins are fierce, energetic predators that patrol shorelines and open areas looking for their prey of small birds (and sometimes dragonflies). They fly powerfully, with quick wingbeats, pausing to glide only rarely. They also spend long periods perched in open areas, scanning for prey.”

And, like many other North American birds of prey, the population of Merlin has rebounded from their DDT-caused lows in the 1960s. Their current conservation status is “species of least concern.”

Like the Kestrel, merlins do not nest this far south in Florida; they are strictly winter residents and passage migrants in these parts.

Come to our September meeting to hear more about this bird.

(Photographer’s please note that next month’s October  2015 Bird will be the Peregrine Falcon)