[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Mississippi Kite!



Doug Shadwick and I were about 2 miles south of you on
the Durham count and at about 7:30 we had a bird that
sounds a lot like what you are describing. It was
flying with a small group of ring-billed gulls and was
clearly a ring-bill itself, same size, shape, and
flight pattern. We chalked up the appearance as a
trick of the very bad light on a gray rainy morning,
but if your bird was the same one, then it must have
been the actual color. If it was not the same bird
...?
Bruce Young
young715@yahoo.com
durham, nc

--- Norman Budnitz <nbudnitz@duke.edu> wrote:
> Today, December 19, 1999, at 9:15 a.m., while doing
> the Durham (NC) 
> Christmas Bird Count at the Butner Gamelands, Carol
> Williamson and I saw 
> what we think must have been a Mississippi Kite.  We
> were walking the swamp 
> loop (the northern leg of Loop 1 on the map on Will
> Cook's web site that 
> describes this area
> <http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/tbg/butner.html> ).  A 
> small raptor appeared flying away from us about 50
> feet in front of us and 
> about 30 feet in the air.  We only saw the bird for
> perhaps 5-10 
> seconds.  The sky was overcast, but there was plenty
> of brightness at the 
> time.  We were using Zeiss 10X40 and Pentax 8X42
> binoculars.
> 
> Details of the observation:
> 
> We only saw the underside of the bird.  The throat,
> breast, and belly were 
> distinctly pale gray, almost white.  It had narrow,
> pointed wings, that 
> were much blacker than the body, with gradation of
> gray to black, but in 
> the short period of observation, it was hard to tell
> any particular 
> pattern.  The tail was medium long, straight and
> square-tipped.  (Long for 
> a small bird, but not as long as in a
> Sharp-shinned.)  The bird showed NO 
> warm tones at all--no browns or reds or rust colors.
>  Just lighter and 
> darker grays.  We did not see the upper side of the
> bird at all, and it 
> made no sounds.  It was flapping slowly, almost
> gliding, as it flew 
> straight away from us.  But the flight was not the
> flap, flap, soar, almost 
> fall-out-of-the-sky pattern of a Sharp-shinned.
> 
> The bird was much too small to be a buteo, even a
> small 
> Red-shouldered.  The wings were too narrow and
> pointy for a buteo or an 
> accipiter.  The tail, though longish, did not seem
> long enough for an 
> accipiter.  The contrasting dark wings and light
> torso rule out Merlin and 
> Peregrine, and the lack of any reds or browns rules
> out Kestrel.  Finally, 
> the bird was too small to be a Ring-billed Gull, and
> the dark wings were 
> not just black-tipped.
> 
> Our best guess was Mississippi Kite, though December
> is awfully 
> late.  MIKIs have been seen in this area in spring
> and summer.
> 
> Comments will be appreciated, but since I will be
> traveling starting 
> tomorrow, I may have limited e-mail access for the
> next 10 days.
> 
> Norm
> 
> ***********************************************
> Norman Budnitz		919-684-3592 (day)
> nbudnitz@duke.edu	919-383-0553 (eve)
> 			919-684-6168 (fax)
> 
> (work)	Department of Zoology, Duke University
> 	Box 90325, Durham NC 27708-0325
> (home)	4115 Garrett Drive, Durham NC 27705-8005
> 
> PROGRESS: the victory of laughter over dogma.
> (Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas)
> 

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Thousands of Stores.  Millions of Products.  All in one place.
Yahoo! Shopping: http://shopping.yahoo.com