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Column: What's that racket? You've got merlins

“Oh that noise! It never seems to let up. I swear it starts as soon as the sun rises. What time is it? 6 a.m.!” The yard is majestic and one situated in the older properties in Greater Sudbury.
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Merlins are a type of falcon related to the larger peregrine falcon. Photo by Chris Blomme.
“Oh that noise! It never seems to let up. I swear it starts as soon as the sun rises. What time is it? 6 a.m.!”

The yard is majestic and one situated in the older properties in Greater Sudbury. It means that with luck, the large white spruce tree in the front yard has reached a height well over the two stories of the house.

Backyards and neighbours share in the mature trees growing along the street and their perspective backyards. Shrubs and secondary growth though trimmed are well in place.

“Cheek, cheek, cheek,” there is goes again. It is mid-July, and the time for a second stage in the life cycle of these relentless noise makers. With a hint of anthropomorphism, something as parents we all look forward to; child independence!

In the spring, there is a completion. The American crows arrive early and establish a territory so that they can rear their young in a nest made of twigs from dead trees.

The nest may be a traditional site and reused with a little refurbishing by the original pair of crows or some relatives. There is another visitor a little more competitive than the crow who also covets those nesting sites.

There aren’t a lot of these visitors around, but when they select a neighbourhood, they tend to get what they want. If you are attentive, you sometimes see the argument that ensues, and the visitor usually wins.

Things calm down quickly, and you may not even know there are tenants on the stick nest. Courtship is brief, and incubation takes about 28 days. After the eggs hatch, the eeyases rely on their parents for food for the next five to seven weeks.

The visitors are masters of the air. They can snap a large dragonfly out of the air as it is flying around, looking for its prey. Small birds are also part of the diet of these visitors, nature’s way of maintaining the balance.

The story brings us back to the child independence thing. Merlins are a type of falcon related to the larger peregrine falcon. Like peregrines, they learn flight skills, and how to hunt with the protection of the parents after the nest stage. The young birds make a lot of noise with their begging calls for several days as they get ready to make their maiden flight from the nest. It is during this time that we quickly learn that we have nesting birds in the area.

Sometimes with initial flights, they land on railings or backyards, giving us a bird’s eye view of themselves. They will move on.

The birds will stay in a loose group for several days before starting to become more adventuresome and travelling further from the nest site. To those who have experienced this, there is relief in sight.

For some, the knowledge that the visitors will not return to the same tree next year is comforting. No doubt, the crows will capitalize on that. Of course, there is always the next street over.

Chris Blomme is an executive member of the Sudbury Ornithological Society and works with animals at Laurentian University. Have a question for Chris? Send it to [email protected].

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