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Re: Mississippi Kite!
- To: Norman Budnitz <nbudnitz@duke.edu>, carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Re: Mississippi Kite!
- From: bruce young <young715@yahoo.com>
- Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 06:35:59 -0800 (PST)
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
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)
>
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