I usually only get to see a merlin a couple of times a year. Yet yesterday, I saw two of them about 50 km apart. A merlin is one of our two falcons, the other being the kestrel.
The Sun had just come over a ridge and was warming the far face of a damp piling which responded by spewing out steam fog. At this point a merlin landed and noticed me watching it.
Apparently deciding that I wasn’t comestible, it then turned and flew off.
The second merlin was resting on a branch after it and some ravens had expressed their mutual hostility.
Lovely photos as usual however there are at least 4 falcons. Going from memory ebird regularly records both Peregrine and Prairie Falcons around the lake. I think there is at least one ebirder at the north end of the lake who has located a Peregrine eyrie on cliffs there. The Prairie is rare but regular in winter in the Creston valley. Both were recorded at Nelson waterfront last year likely in migration. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Gyrfalcon shows up in Creston in winter too. Neither ebird nor efauna has recorded one in the Central Kootenay yet, but pretty sure they are rare regular visitors to the coast and the Okanagan, it is about time one showed up here too. Hope it lands in front of your camera lens!
Max, touché. I should have been more careful and said I have have only ever seen two falcons around the Lake. Alas, I would have again been wrong, as my 2014 shot of a Prairie Falcon, below, reveals. Unfortunately, a Peregrine Falcon continues to elude me.
