Yesterday morning around 10:45 am I was surprised to see a Merlin perched at the top of a dead birch tree that is in my neighbors yard. I got great looks at it with my binocs and attempted to take some pics with my digital camera, but the lighting was not very good.
At first I thought it was just a Kestrel, but it looked more stocky and when I put the binocs on the bird I was excited to see a slate colored back, streaked below, a fairly long tail and a very distinct face with none of the markings like a Kestrel. It had yellow legs, and yellow on the upper part of its bill. I watched it for about 5 minutes before it took off towards the west. I tried to located the bird later in the day, but with no luck.
Stephen Peterson