Urban Merlin

I'm in an ornithology class at the moment. I've taken and TA'ed a "Bird Ecology" course, but that was down at the university's Biological Station and only lasted the better part of two weeks. This new, semester-long course is proving to be good fun. As expected (and one would hope), we're often out in the field looking for birds.

I missed an excursion last week. I did have an excuse - I was watching a presentation on monitoring Peregrine populations in Scotland, but the next day I arrived in class to find everyone chatting enthusiastically about an unusual sighting.

Amidst the bustle of the enclosed city of Norman, the class had spied a Merlin. In a newly built neighborhood edition, there he was on a lone, gnarled and bare tree. Placid and accommodating, perhaps preoccupied with scanning the field that stretched out in front, the Merlin allowed a gaggle of college students get close.



A herpetology student in our class, Sam Martin, took these fine photos. I was delighted to see them; there is something special about Merlins. He also spotted the Eastern Bluebird pictured above and this Lesser Yellowlegs below. The latter was methodically working around the pond edge after a flock of Green-winged Teal had fled.