While Sean McCandless was in the house posting about the STKI he had first
spotted at a distance, the bird returned,turned, came lower and flew precicely
the length of Sean's street.  I watched as it approached, passed overhead and
turned off again toward the airport.  I noted a large raptor with long, pointed
wings, white underparts and head, black primaries and secondaries and whitish
wing linings.  The unmistakable, deeply forked tail was  black.  Once, when
it banked, I noted  white flecking on the back (looking to me like white tips
to some of the wing coverts).  The mark of a nearly adult juvenile?  I've seen
a lot of this species in Florida.

About ten minutes later, Sean and I had two Mississippi Kites soaring, one a
gray ghost adult with a broad, dark tail, the other with a banded tail -- a
juvenile.

Many thanks to Sean for making a two-kite day possible -- both state lifers
for me.

Lou Nielsen
Reisterstown, MD