This morning I drove down to the Park Point Recreation Area. Given the day finally dawned with less wind and sun, I was hoping for early migrants. Except for some early arriving waterfowl in the bay, there were almost zero birds … nary a songbird. However, even though the temperature was 26F at 8 am, I cruised the area slowly with my car windows open. Suddenly I heard a Merlin, and then there were two! These falcons are early arriving raptors and they know that there is a huge area stretching from the end of the Sky Harbor Airport Runway to the Recreation Area with almost zero trees. Songbirds need to fly/migrate through this stretch (the Gauntlet) and Merlins can easily catch meals. If you don’t keep your windows somewhat open, even in the winter you will miss out on a lot of good birds. If you walk the Park Point Nature Trail out to the Superior Entry in April, you will often hear many Merlin couples as they choose nesting sites.

In addition I saw this late migrant. This immature Bald Eagle was not in a hurry to return north as it is not yet sexually mature and breed. Other than the eagles that will remain in our area and are already on nests, migrating eagles migrated through our region many weeks ago. As a fyi, Bald Eagles do not get their white head at tail till after they are four years old.