Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 00:39:00 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Comments on Mississippi Kites in Maryland MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, Matt Hafner graciously posted directions (0.8 mi north/west on Kibler Rd. from Rte. 313) to the Mississippi Kites that Todd Day, Holly Mercer, and I bumped into in Caroline County last week (19 Aug). When we approached the birds were sitting in snags of the large Spanish Oak in the yard. The male was very well marked, with a brilliant white head and bold whitish secondary patches. The female was apparently a third-year bird, as she had some prominent banding still in the tail. Her head was duller gray and her secondaries barely contrasted with the rest of the wing. I took a number of photos, as did Todd and Holly. Although Mississippi Kite has been seen in MD almost 50x now, and although the MD/DCRC accepted some 15 records before removing it from the review list, I believe these will be the 3rd photos for the state and the first that are not extremely distant (Mary Gustafson and Patty Craig have the other photos). The birds made feeding sallies out from the perch and returned for about 40 minutes before feeding over the field and then kettling high overhead and drifting off to the west. Thirty minutes later I may have seen one of them duck into the woods to the south. We spoke for a good while with the landowner, Ron Jopp, who was not sure if he'd seen the kites before or not. He did invite me back to explore the woods in back with him at some time. He said there are a lot of dead snags back there (good for kites, Olive-sideds, and Red-headed Woodpeckers perhaps). If any other birders are in the area you might knock on his door and ask permission to go back there. To my knowledge this is the first sighting of a pair of Mississippis in the state. The species has been breeding in northern Virginia (Alexandria area) for several years now, so breeding in Maryland is to be suspected. These birds did not seem to have a nest or young nearby, so may not have successfully nested this season. However, I think it is very likely that they attempted and also likely that they will return next year (the northern VA birds have been faithful to the same sites). Consider the following: 1) Mississippi Kites are semi-unusual in mid-summer, and most often turn up in May and June 2) The sighting of a pair is unprecedented and is very strong evidence for nesting activity 3) There was an earlier (late Jul) sighting of a Mississippi Kite in the same area, near Kibler and 314, about 5 mi north. I recommend that any birders who regularly visit the Eastern shore mark this location on their maps and visit it whenever possible between May and early Sep. These birds may have already migrated this year (kites depart early, usually late Aug in VA), but may return next year by early May. Wouldn't a Mississippi Kite nest be a great way to start the Maryland Atlas 2002-2007? Best, Marshall Iliff *********************** Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD ************************ ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================