Keith, 

   This is three weeks before the previous earliest report which is April 11, 2002 in Howard Co. 

Bob Ringler 
Eldersburg MD 
 



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith Eric Costley" <> 
To:  
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 8:15:40 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Mississippi Kite, Rusty Blackbirds at Irvine Nature Center (04/21) 

At approximately 5:00 pm yesterday I spotted a juvenile Mississippi Kite over the parking lot at Irvine Nature Center. A nice collection of Northbound raptors had been passing overhead when I noticed three birds gliding at three different altitudes. One was a Sharp-shinned Hawk (highest), the other a Bald Eagle (lowest) and the middle bird was the Kite. I [frantically] alerted Dot Gustafson , and Katharine and John Patterson. We were able to watch the bird for a short time before it was out of sight. I’ll try to get everyone's impressions to support or disprove this sighting. 

This bird had relatively pointed wings and a kind of small head. It even brought it’s legs forward and reached down for a couple of seconds as if feeding. The tail was moderately flared with several dark bands. I have not check the MD Yellowbook yet; but I saw on eBird their earliest report of a Mississippi Kite is 4/30/091 by Sean McCandless in Cecil County. 

We had a very nice evening walk without seeing or hearing the American Woodcock. We had a handful of Rusty Blackbirds, 3 Wilson’s Snipe and 5 Killdeer. Other than the single Red-taoled Hawk, all other raptors were flyovers. 

Location: Irvine Nature Center 
Observation date: 3/21/10 
Number of species: 38 

Canada Goose 15 
Mallard 6 
duck sp. 3 
Black Vulture 1 
Turkey Vulture 20 
Mississippi Kite 1 
Bald Eagle 1 
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 
Cooper's Hawk 2 
Red-shouldered Hawk 2 
Red-tailed Hawk 1 
American Kestrel 1 
Killdeer 5 
Wilson's Snipe 3 
Ring-billed Gull 6 
Mourning Dove 9 
Barred Owl 1 
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3 
Downy Woodpecker 1 
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 2 
Pileated Woodpecker 1 
Eastern Phoebe 1 
American Crow 21 
Fish Crow 2 
Carolina Chickadee 6 
Tufted Titmouse 2 
White-breasted Nuthatch 2 
Eastern Bluebird 3 
American Robin 140 
Northern Mockingbird 1 
European Starling 80 
Song Sparrow 1 
Northern Cardinal 4 
Red-winged Blackbird 200 
Rusty Blackbird 5 
Common Grackle 2 
Brown-headed Cowbird 12 
blackbird sp. 80 
House Finch 7 
American Goldfinch 3 

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2( http://ebird.org ) 

Irvine Nature Center website: www.explorenature.com/ 


Keith Eric Costley 
 
Randallstown, Baltimore County