Raptor Wednesday

Since December, I’ve seen a Merlin perched on the antenna at 40th and 5th Avenue four or five times. Each time has been between 7:20-7:45. Merlins are known to perch for a long time on the same spot, but these are brief stops.

Photos of these sightings have been awful. The warm lens indoors doesn’t like the cold out there, and the light must also travel through a long block of heat distortion from buildings.

This is another hard-to-photograph spot, atop an elementary school. This is another case of the bird(s) ranging outside the woodsy regions, although this is only two blocks from a corner of Green-Wood.

Luckily, they’re still using the Steinway perch, as they have been for a couple years now.

Not to mention elsewhere in Green-Wood. You never can tell where they’ll show up.