Date: 5/2/25 7:21 am From: JACQUE BROWN <bluebird2...> Subject: Merlin Heard
So going with the theme of what Merlin heard I didn't need to go outside my Centerton yard.
I decided to sit out on the porch to drink my coffee Monday morning. I was running the Melin App at around 7 am. It heard a Merlin, and a Bob White within seconds of each other, Followed by Yellow-breasted Chat, Rusty Blackbird and Great-tailed Grackle. During the 10 minutes it was running it also had a Pine Siskin, Swainson's Thrush, Rock Pigeon. Plus all the birds I was actually hearing.
I actually heard the Merlin KiKiKiKi but nothing else.
I live just over a 1/4 mile from the Centerton Fish Hatchery so come of these may be a possibility.
I know what Bob White males and females sound like and I really don't think we have had them around this area for quite some time otherwise people would be reporting them all the time. Although one of my neighbors had a Bob White chick show up in their yard last summer and we couldn't figure out where it came from since no one raises them around here.
Great-tailed Grackles are also seen around the dairy farms in Vaughn and have been seen at the Hatchery but I've only had one on my yard once since 2008 when I moved here and it was with a flock of Common Grackles and it was doing it's clicks and FWEEEEP call.
I've seen a Merlin at the hatchery and Swainson's Thrush there, too. I didn't have Pine Siskins at my feeders this year and usually only get a few when they are present.
Just about everyone is familiar with Starlings doing Red-shouldered Hawk screams, I have my own pair of those nesting nearby but my point is the Starlings are great Mimics, I've heard them do Bob White calls, too. Who's to say they aren't behind some of these other birds that the Merlin app id picking up.
I have House Wren, Warbling Vireo, Baltimore Oriole, Lincoln's Sparrow, Common Grackles, Starlings, Eurasian-collared Dove, Mourning Dove, plus all the usual backyard birds.
Gray Catbirds and Brown Thrashers also nest in my yard and I currently have both here.
