Week 43 – Merlin

 

Free-flying adult male Merlin being released. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.

I feel like I’m cheating… almost.

For the last three weeks now I have posted photographs of wild-caught raptors either in the hand, or just leaving the hand. Now some may say these photographs lack the true purity of a moment that might be captured of a similar wild, free-flying bird. I certainly can’t argue with that, but none-the-less all of these birds have been wild-caught. They are not education birds, or rehab birds, or falconry birds. They are wild, migrating raptors.

I trapped this adult male Merlin (most likely an After-Second Year adult) at the Idaho Bird Observatory’s Lucky Peak migration station this past week. I like to think of Merlins as mini-Peregrine Falcons as they exhibit much the same aggressive demeanor, albeit in a smaller package.

Two fellow trappers and myself were practicing our release shots that day: capturing that perfect moment when the bird leaves your hand and continues on it’s migration. This was by far the best shot I got all day.

All of the previous 52-week blog photos can be found at the Wild Lens blog or on Flickr.