Last week, Cape May had a Missippi Kite at Higbie Beach and at the
observation deck. I do not know what was the age of the bird.
Taylor McLean
-----Original Message-----
From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Patricia Valdata
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 7:44 PM
To:
Subject: [MDOSPREY] any guesses on this bird at Turkey Point today?
It was a slow raptor day at Turkey Point, though the long meadow was
chock full
of White-throated Sparrows and Kinglets, and I saw two Junco tails
disappear into the
mile-a-minute tangle near the bench.
What really got my attention was a bird that flew out from the trees
on the north east
side of the Hawk Watch meadow. Because it was near the sun I never got a
good look at field marks, but I did get a glimpse of what looked like a
terminal band on the tail,
and overall the bird seemed quite dark. The front half of the
underside of the wings
looked darker than the flight feathers.
My first thought was a smallish buteo, but then I thought I saw short
first primaries, but then
I saw the bird was molting (isn't it a tad late for that?) and
missing other primaries. A couple
of wing feathers were sticking up at an odd angle--I guess on their
way to dropping off--and
in general it looked pretty scraggly. However, its flight was sort of
accipter-like as it twisted
in mid-air as though it were hunting for insects, and at one point I
could clearly see its feet
down as it swooped and flapped among the dragonflies. Then it did a
fast glide back
over the trees. Its wings seemed quite fluid as it flapped, not
stiff, and it was very maneuverable.
When it reappeared about an hour later in a glide, its wings seemed
quite falcon-like, with a straight
trailing edge and a point to the tips. Again it did a quick pass over
the field, a couple of turns,
and then it let the wind carry it back over the trees.
It was clearly not an accipiter--there was nothing long about the
tail--and it was also not a falcon, not
any that I've seen, anyway, with their purposeful straight flight.
This bird was all over the place.
It also really didn't look like a buteo on the second look. There was
no breadth to those wings.
Could it possibly have been a juvenile Mississippi Kite, at Turkey
Point in mid-October??
--Pat
Pat Valdata, Elkton, MD |
"The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards
and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods.
More than any other thing that pertains to the body it partakes of the
nature of the divine." --Plato |