Drove 3 hours (one way) to investigate a report. Success! Found more than 100 Mississippi Kites swooping, soaring, and feasting on big flying grasshoppers. There were also a handful of Swallowtailed Kites joining the ballet – and the buffet. I shot picture after picture, until my arms were tired. Total was more than 300 frames. In the old days, with celluloid film, that would have been an expensive day for a hobbiest like me. In the digital age, not so much. Looks like 4 or 5 of them are pictures worth saving. That’s not a bad average for these moving targets.
Very good average for that kind of stuff. Can you post links to the pictures soon?
Not long ago I caught these two on the same feeder at the same time which I found to be a bit unusual.
saw a Steller’s Jay this morning, looked to be building a nest. isn’t it kind of late for that?
Thanks for the interest! I’ll try to post some, maybe tomorrow.
I like Pileated! Such impressive birds. Were these a sexual pair? I can’t tell in this picture. That might explain them feeding together.
I have no clue, very shy birds…
Today it was a turkey buzzard eating an unrecognizable critter on the side of the road in Southwest Michigan. Two days ago it started with flying macaws at the San Diego zoo. Afterwards there were numerous species whose names I will probably never remember.
From the pontoon boat, we watched cedar waxwings grabbing their dinner from the air. We later drifted by a wood duck family, startling them and us.
We’re lucky to have a couple of nesting pairs within reasonably close proximity, and they can be seen around my office regularly.
Since you were kind enough to express an interest, I’ve put a couple of Kite pictures on Dropbox at this link. None are going to win any awards for photography, but they’ll give me pleasant memories of a rewarding day in the field.
Nice pictures! Very helpful for identification, as I have never seen those kites. (i live in california) but now my Petersons guide book is confusing me!!
Seems like they should be Mississippi Kites, location wise etc but those dark eyes and tail bands dont seem to match 
So what do you believe they are?
Beautiful birds , must have been a hot day too?
oops…missed the edit…Miss. Kites it is!!! I googled around abit, my guidebook doesnt really show the eyes or juvie tailbars very clearly.
Yes, you found it! I didn’t mention them, but we were surprised that juveniles made up at least half of the birds seen. Sorry if that was confusing. There were quite a lot of missing tail and primary feathers on the birds, especially the juvies. I don’t know what the significance might be. Perhaps they were recently fledged and showing the worn and tattered feathers with which they first escaped their nests and took flight. This feeding orgy of giant clumsy grasshoppers may have been critical nutrition for birds with somewhat impaired flight abilities.
And thanks for complimenting my pictures!
Yepper, great pictures CannyDan… I had no idea they looked so hawk like.
I was going to say they look “alien”…hah and scary!!! The pic of them in the trees, with the one with his, “flight aparatus cooling system” ha that is nice.
CannyDan, your pics CLARIFIED my ID troubles, the Petersons books, for North America and Eastern Seaboard uses his hand painted folios and I still cant see those beautiful dark eye rings in his pics. Just sort of a yellow band. eh, minor painting goof.(copyright of some pic means I had to use AZ book image) http://https://books.google.com/books?id=R0Qx1V6imrUC&pg=PT110&lpg=PT110&dq=mississippi+kite+petersons&source=bl&ots=-Dy7C2061n&sig=GC51IDcmFi0cCerZpoHmnhWMTdk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj__9Dd98rNAhWNZiYKHdqUBxMQ6AEITTAL#v=onepage&q=mississippi%20kite%20petersons&f=false…also some interesting links on the kites becoming a bit aggressive in urban areas:eek:
Bird Story:
I’m a bit interested in hawks, we have a lot here, mostly the redtails, and I care for some parrot aviaries, so the hawks seem to want to check out the racket, circling overhead quite abit. (pretty noisy here) We have good supply of rodents trying to get food scraps too, so there is that.
The coopers hawks of course, want bird dinner.:mad:(rats cant taste all that good)
I have pics somewhere, of a fledgling red shouldered hawk, (which you might mistake for a giant robin, haha as they have red breasts) (whom we had heard being raised high over head in a pine tree, ie squeeks when mom returned) his first flight ended up with him/her tangled in some cycads with his wings not quite functional yet.
We wrapped him in a blanket, then placed him on a nice high rock for good flight clearance, and waited till he his got his act together to fly away. Realigning feathers etc. The looks he gave us, (and our little shnauzers) what a glare…he looked pissed… or hungry(many flying species lose a fair amount of baby fat before fledging, so they can at least get some lift going)
ok sorry for sidetrack…I get going sometimes.
my bad, that link is no good. this edit window drives me nuts due my less than stellar typing skills.
Thanks again to both of you for the kind words.
Jupe, you mention red shoulders. Here’s one we released two weeks ago. The guy mugging for the camera was the winner of a 4Km poker walk/run event. His prize was the privilege of releasing a recovered patient. The bird was a juvenile, orphaned as a nestling and raised for release at the facility named in the video.
Link to release video on Dropbox. I guess I could post it to YouTube, couldn’t I? Didn’t think of that!
Wow!!! Good job!! Thanx for sharing that!!! Good on all the rescue orgs out there!!!
Those legs dont look like much do they?
What a beautiful bird!!! No red breast yet!! Our red tails were not sure what to make of the breeding pair here, they seem to be rare out on the coast. (santa barbara)
I cant imagine being in those talons, I guess its a quick death tho…I heard that the central tendon pulls tighter like a rachet, (like a dredging grabber for soil) and the bird just pulls tighter and tighter to kill.
…(my little conures get their claws around edges of fingernails, if I have to work on them…they just know the weak spots…man does that hurt, I have to pry them out…they arent mad, just birds:D)
and peoples dont forget…dont use any of the anti-coagulent rat poisons, they have been decimating the birds of prey and native cats, which of course just lets more rats be rats. Hopefully there will come a nationwide ban. California is moving forward.
ok thanks again!!!
Yeah, talons are bad! I’ve had several in various parts of my anatomy on occasion. Interestingly, [anecdote alert!] we’ve found the horse liniment ‘bigeloil’ relieves much of the pain and swelling associated with the 24 – 48 hours after being “footed” by a raptor.
I’ve been footed by lots of raptors, it’s what they do for defense, so no hard feelings. A couple of footings by eagles remain memorable. A new assistant was holding a bald eagle for examination. The drill is to lay it on its back on a table with the assistant seated at the table. The bird’s hooded head is close to the assistant’s chest, and its tail extends toward the other side of the table. The assistant’s arms cradle both sides of the bird, and its legs are firmly held in roughly their normal posture. I was reaching across the bird, when it thrust out one foot. The new assistant wasn’t expecting the movement or the power of the bird, and lost his grip. The foot contacted my upper arm at the triceps, and all four of its 2cm talons buried themselves in my arm. The assistant grabbed the leg again and was properly sorry. But I wasn’t going anywhere, and it hurt like hell. My arm was being crushed, and deeply punctured. There was no way to pry those talons out.
I yelled for help and got someone to wheel over the anesthesia machine. It took perhaps 3 minutes for the bird to pass out and go limp, and those were probably the longest 3 minutes of my life!
The bird healed well from whatever its presenting problem was, and as I recall was released before my arm was fully healed.
:eek:wow:eek: I just came in for lunch to see this!!
I assume you work in a rehab place then? Complete respect…[bowing]
Wow, footed, what a term:eek: Perhaps U R F’d might be better?
In my case, its you have been secured by something cleverer than yourself.
Our local rehabber is http://www.ojairaptorcenter.org/ they are pretty top notch. We have some bald eagles out on the Channel Islands, I thought I was seeing things when I “saw” this huge bird carreening by with a white head…might have been an osprey too…
I cant believe you healed so well either…no infection? My little birds, vegetarians as they may be, carry lots of bacteria, so minor nips that dont bother much one day, have to be opened and cleaned up the next. I learned a new term too!!! haha footed!!!
I will check out your rescue site from the video later.
Barn swallows nest near my front door at work every year. Their first clutch has hatched, so we’ve been watching them (without getting too close) all day.
Another amusing fledgling fail this morning in my yard this morning while I was smoking. A young mostly uncolored Cardinal flew in and proudly perched on a stupid maple sapling that is maybe 16 inches tall that I haven’t got around to cutting out yet. It tilted over till he was about 15 degrees from horizontal about and inch and half off the ground, but he managed to told on and act like he meant to to it.