Fifth Backyard Merlin Sighting! ~ December 8, 2019

Late Sunday afternoon as daylight waned, I noticed a silhouetted bird perched near the top of one of the neighbor's trees that appeared to be either a Kestrel or Merlin. I grabbed my binoculars and camera and went outside. A better look with binoculars confirmed that it was a Merlin. This makes the fifth, yes fifth, Merlin sighting from my yard. They have definitely seemed to increase in numbers compared with back in the 1970's when they were one of the least recorded raptors at Hawk Mountain. I snapped a photo of it in the dim light.

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