Date: 1/1/13 7:57 pm
From: Sherman Suter <ssuter...>
Subject: [MDBirding] Mississippi Kite on MD eBird alert NOT


The Mississippi Kite "sighting" from Indian Head yesterday (31 December) that went out to those who subscribe to the eBird rare bird alerts for Maryland was the result of my failure to understand how those alerts are generated.

I had entered the bird and details on a list that was marked "hide from eBird output" because Kurt Gaskill and I were still trying to confirm the ID of that raptor. We had found it while trying to relocate the Swallow-tailed Kite reported on Sunday's Ft Belvoir CBC. Our bird was perched in a tree on the south bank of Mattawoman Creek, and we watched it from the north bank (at the end of Mattingly Rd in Indian Head) for nearly an hour hoping to see it take flight. But we weren't looking when it did, and we never relocated it. We were certain that it wasn't a Swallow-tailed, we had kites on the brain, and Mississippi came closest to matching what we seeing. But any kite in Maryland would be incredible at this time of year, and given the distance (1 km) and lighting conditions, we weren't confident of the ID and were still evaluating it. As we should have been, because further reflection on my notes and consulting references shows our in-the-field conclusion to have been incorrect. My eBird list has accordingly been corrected.

We now believe the bird to have been a Rough-legged Hawk. Some light morph birds can show all of the traits that we are most confident of having seen, and the size and angled posture (and position well out on a branch on the side of the crown) fit that species. Had we managed to see the bird in flight, the identification probably would have been obvious and our thoughts of kite immediately dispelled.

I suspect that no one took the report seriously---although if anyone did act on it, I can only hope that they had better luck than we did in searching for Sunday's bird.

Sherman Suter
Port Republic MD 22307
<ssuter...>









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