Merlins continue to increase as wintering birds in Ohio, it seems.
At first in the northeast, winter roosts have showed up elsewhere over
the past decade. Today, while there remain two fairly regular locations
in the Cleveland area, there are now two in Columbus and two in
Cincinnati. All six of these sites are in urban cemeteries with good
stands of mature conifers. The exact dates can of course be blurred
because of migrants on the way elsewhere, but these birds usually appear
in November, (after most migrant passerines have passed) and depart in
March (before these migrants' peak passage). Local experts, who have
learned the preferred roosts and perches and hunting schedules of their
birds, find them with regularity, but casual seekers without this
information can easily miss them. Finds of merlins well after and before
migratory movements seem to be on the increase as well. Last fall a
record-early merlin was seen in central Ohio on 17 August, not far from
where a couple of quite late mid-May reports emerged.
    Martin Bailey wrote an interesting article about merlins for a
Canadian journal a few years ago. He described interesting new
predator/prey relationships in cities and towns in Saskatchewan. The
introduction there of towns and trees in what used to be vast prairies
has led to the appearance of crows, peregrine falcons (introduced),
great horned owls, and merlins into the bird mix, following previous
incursions by house sparrows and rock pigeons. Merlins, much more
tolerant of the human presence than in wilder spots, began nesting in
spruce plantings in urban settings south of their previous range. In a
fair-sized town such as Weyburn (pop. ~10K), five merlin nests were
found, spaced about 250 meters apart in scattered spruces. In a large
city like Saskatoon (~200K population), over 300 nesting locations have
been identified within the city limits over the past 50 years since
they've moved in.  Merlins do not build nests, often relying instead on
abandoned crows' nests; locals complained about the depredations of
merlins on feeder-birds, forgetting that crows probably caused far more
damage by robbing eggs. In a related note, lethal control projects for
crows and magpies in some areas were sidetracked when it was made known
that protected merlins relied on the nests of unprotected corvids.
Merlins had especially important impacts on house sparrow populations
after arriving as breeders. A more recent occupation of urban breeding
grounds by Cooper's hawks may conflict with that by merlins.
    There are old reports of summering merlins here, mostly in the NE;
tantalizingly, they lack definite proof of nesting, so merlins are not
on the list of Ohio's breeding birds. Investigators for the Pennsylvania
Breeding Bird Atlas discovered new nesting areas there not far from NE
Ohio last summer, however. These are all reasons for extra efforts and
alertness as we continue the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas work this spring
and summer. They should probably not depend on the noisy defense merlins
usually offer to intruders within several hundred yards of their nests,
as urbanized merlins seem far less excitable. Rural conifer groves,
especially in the NE, deserve more attention; if nothing else, they also
harbor nesting long-eared owls*. Our hordes of warbler-watchers should
note the persistence of merlins at certain spots such as cemeteries
during the migratory period, and check them later when they often go
uncovered.
*if you walk into a long-eared grove alone, you are likely to miss all
or most of the owls, btw.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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