Mississippi Kites nesting in Shawnee State Forest

A male Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis) lands atop his mate. Seconds later, he mounted her.

Last weekend the Midwest Native Plant Society hosted a wonderful conference at Shawnee State Park's lodge. Nearly 200 people were in attendance, and there was much to see: plants galore, snakes, lots of birds, amphibians, and more. The 1,100-acre park is nestled within the 70,000 acres of Shawnee State Forest and the biodiversity is extreme. But it was hard to beat this pair of kites.

While botanizing in the depths of the forest 6 or 7 years ago, in early summer, I heard the unmistakable calls of Mississippi Kites, but could not clap eyes on them. The following year park naturalist Jenny Richards located presumably the same birds near the nature center where they were a fixture much of that summer. A pair of kites has been present ever since.

This year the kites have shifted their base camp to the cabins at the lodge. There are a couple conspicuous dead snags between cabins 14 and 15, and when not out hunting one or both kites sit in those snags where they cannot be missed. There are even conveniently located benches with great views. It's kind of like going to the movies, except you're watching real live kites.

And the kites put on a show. It seemed that about every time the male would join the female at the snags, he would mount her in a hopefully successful effort to produce kitelets. Sometimes he would bring her a grasshopper. Occasionally one of the kites would perch atop an oak directly over the viewing area - they are hardly shrinking violets and paid people no mind. We were especially pleased to see them carrying sticks to a likely nest site somewhere in the nearby forest.

Kites are light and incredibly agile. Flyers extraordinaire, they deftly pluck insects such as cicadas (they'll emerge a bit later) dragonflies, and grasshoppers from the air. Small snakes and birds are also fair game.

The first Ohio record of Mississippi Kite (in modern times at least) was in 1978 in Franklin County. When Bruce Peterjohn published his 2nd edition of The Birds of Ohio in 2001, he only was aware of nine records. In the two decades since then, records have skyrocketed, and multiple birds are now documented annually. The first confirmed nesting was in 2008 in Hocking County and now there are probably at least a few nesting pairs in southern Ohio.

The Shawnee kites are easily observed and if you're in the area, it'd be worth stopping by for a look. If they aren't on the snags around cabin 15, just wait a bit and they'll likely appear. Nearly everyone who attended the recent conference got to see them, and often large throngs of people assembled to ooh and aah over the sporty kites.

 

Nature: Birders thrilled to see Mississippi kites flying in Ohio

A young Mississippi kite flexes its wings in its nest in Ross County/Jim McCormac

Columbus Dispatch

August 5, 2018

NATURE
Jim McCormac

The summer of 2007 brought exciting news to Ohio’s bird watchers. Birder Rick Perkins had discovered Mississippi kites frequenting a Hocking County golf course. He was there to play a round of golf, and scored an exceptional birdie.

Mississippi kites were then considered rare vagrants to Ohio, and they didn’t usually stick around. If you weren’t there when the kite appeared, you missed it.

The kites Perkins saw at the golf course did linger, and became so reliable that people could visit and expect to see the birds.

As the summer went on, it became clear that the flyweight raptors had a nest nearby. Attempts to find it were unsuccessful, but in late summer a juvenile kite appeared. The begging youngster sat atop tall snags and was stuffed with cicadas and dragonflies by its parents.

The still downy youngster was obviously raised locally — the first documented Ohio nesting on record

Our first confirmed record of a Mississippi kite dates only to 1978, when a bird was seen passing over Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus. Records increased steadily through the years, and by the 2000s birds were being reported almost every year.

As it turns out, the 2007 Hocking County kite nest was the vanguard of a small tide of kites. More nesting sites were found in Hocking County, and likely breeding reports came from Athens County. Summering birds have since appeared in southern Ohio haunts from Marietta to Portsmouth, and at least some of them must be nesting.

A few years ago, Mississippi kites turned up near Chillicothe, and they’ve been back every year since. Finally, a nest was located this summer and, a few weeks ago, one chick hatched. That’s the bird in the photo above.

I visited this nest July 26 and spent several hours photographing the birds. The juvenile was nearly adult-sized and active, often jumping about the nest and flapping its wings. By now, the youngster is out and free-flying.

Mississippi kites are elegant raptors and excellent aeronauts. Although not much smaller than a peregrine falcon (wingspan nearly 3 feet, length more than a foot), the kite weighs only 10 ounces. The comparatively hefty falcon weighs 2½ times that.

Because of their light weight, long, pointed wings and rudderlike tail, kites are extraordinary aerialists capable of embarrassing even the most skilled stunt pilot.

Although they’ll capture small birds and other vertebrates, the kites’ summertime bread and butter is large insects. It’s amazing to watch a kite wafting languidly about high in the air, seemingly sky-loafing

When it spots a dragonfly or cicada far below, the bird will suddenly drop like a meteor. Seconds later, it deftly snags the bug from the air with a lunge of its sharp talons.

Most Mississippi kites breed in the southern Great Plains and Gulf and south Atlantic states. They prefer older-growth bottomland forests. Scattered outposts occur to the north, but in recent years kites have been on a roll, nesting in many new northern areas. Breeders have been reported as far north as New Hampshire.

Why the sudden range expansion? The answer is unclear, but might relate to forest recovery. As eastern forests rebound after the extensive deforestation that occurred from the mid-1800s into the early 20th century, the kites might be reclaiming former haunts.

Come fall, Mississippi kites migrate thousands of miles southward, disappearing into the Amazonian basin of South America. Very little is known about them on the wintering grounds.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

A trio of Mississippi Kites!

Photo: Dana Cornelisen 

Imagine Dana Cornelisen's shock and surprise when he looked into the trees shadowing his suburban Loveland, Ohio home and saw the scene above. Not one, nor two, but three Mississippi Kites!

Dana took this photo yesterday, August 5, the first day that he observed the kites. Click HERE for a brief YouTube video of the kites that Dana Made. We're still trying to figure out what the situation is with these birds. The two uppermost kites look to be adults (although someone said that two of the kites are subadults; I just can't see enough to tell with the upper right bird), and undoubtedly are a male/female pair. The bird with its back to us is a subadult, but from what I can tell it is not a recently fledged juvenile. If it were, it should be showing more white scalloping, buffy feather edgings, and traces of juvenile down. Plus, it would be rather early in the season to have a young bird this far along.

Mississippi Kites are known for their occasional deployment of "helper" birds. The helpers are juveniles from the previous season who hang around the nest of their parents the following season, and will even assist in feeding chicks by catching food. One study of several hundred pairs of kites in the core of their breeding range found that some 18% of the active nests had these juvenile helper kites assisting with activities. Perhaps this is the explanation for the third bird in Dana's photo.

This gorgeous raptor species was first documented as nesting in Ohio in 2007 in Hocking County, and birds have been found nesting there every successive year. The Hide-A-Way Hills nesting kites have garnered their fair share of fame, in part due to the "Kite Day" of the past two years. Read about the last one HERE. Melissa Krieger and Elizabeth vanBalen Delphia report that the H-A-W-H's kites are present this year, and probably nesting, but have moved to a different spot and are proving much more elusive than in year's past. I've written about Ohio's nesting Mississippi Kites numerous times, dating to the inaugural 2007 nesting; just type Mississippi Kite into the search box in the upper lefthand corner of this page and Blogger will pull them all up for you.

Good ole Google earth, showing the lay of the land of these new Cincinnati area kites. Note Lever Park and the reddish balloon towards the upper lefthand corner of the aerial; that's ground zero for these birds. The Little Miami River flows diagonally across the bottom righthand corner of the photo. The presence of this river is also good for nesting kites - they seem to have an affinity for river valleys. The Hocking County kites that have come to light were all in fairly close proximity to the Hocking River, a larger stream not dissimilar to the Little Miami.

It would be great if nesting could be confirmed for the Loveland Kites, and hopefully Dana and/or other birders will be able to locate the nest, or eventually fledglings that are being fed by the adults/helper. Heading to Lever Park and focusing on that area is probably the best strategy. The nest of a Mississippi Kites can be devilishly hard to find, even if you know about where it must be. It's often a tiny affair and can be high in a tree in the midst of other trees, and tucked right into the trunk. Finding conspicuous begging youngsters once they've fledged, high in a snag and exhorting their parents to bring more cicadas by issuing high pitched whistles, might be more likely.

Congratulations to Dana Cornelisen for a fabulous find, and for quickly sharing his discovery with the rest of the birding community. It is really great to watch these beautiful and agile raptors colonize (recolonize in my opinion) Ohio, and I'm confident that we'll see even more nesting kites turning up in coming years.

Mississippi Kites return

 Photo: Melissa Krygier

They're back! The now famous Mississippi Kites that have taken up summer residence in recent years in the Hide-A-Way Hills (henceforth HAH) of Ohio's Hocking County are back on their turf. I've received updates over the past week or so from Elizabeth vanBalen Delphia and Melissa Krygier, and Melissa sent along these fantastic images.

In the above image, the male kite is passing some sort of large insect to the female. This, apparently, is how boy kites charm girl kites. I can make out long knobbed antennae on the hapless insect gift and wonder if it might be an owl-fly. Mississippi Kites consume tremendous numbers of flying insects, which they deftly pluck from the air. Later, when the annual cicadas emerge, they'll harvest scores of these massive insects. Cicadas form the bulk of the diet for the young kites.

Mississippi Kites were first documented as nesting in Ohio in 2007 elsewhere in Hocking County. The HAH birds were first detected in 2010, but likely had nested there prior to this, based on anecdotal reports. There have been other kite reports in the area, and in nearby Athens county, and it appears that a small and possibly expanding Mississippi Kite population has become established in the Hocking River watershed.

Photo: Melissa Krygier

If Ms. Kite is suitably impressed by her suitor's gift, this is the reward. Melissa observed this bit of confirming breeding evidence very near to where the kites successfully nested the past two years. If all goes well, they should have a pair of kitelets by sometime in July or thereabouts.

HAH is a gated community, and unfortunately off limits to nonresident visitors. But through the efforts of Elizabeth and Melissa, we have managed a day of visitation for interested birders, which has become known as "Kite Day". CLICK HERE for a piece about last year's Kite Day. The Ohio Ornithological Society stepped in and played a big role in helping with 2011 Kite Day, and hopefully will do the same this year.

We'll watch and wait, and hope for another successful nesting of the HAH Mississippi Kites. And look forward to another Kite Day later this summer, when the kitelets are out of the nest and being stuffed with cicadas by their parents. It's quite a show.

Kite Day '11

Yesterday marked Ohio's 2nd "Kite Day"; an opportunity to oberve the only known nesting pair of Mississippi Kites in the state. Kite enthusiasts come streaming down the lane in the photo above. Ground zero for these kites is Hide-A-Way Hills (HAH), a private 1,650-acre resort in northern Hocking County. The community, as last year, allowed birders in for a half-day to see the birds. About one hundred people came, from all over the state. There would have been more but parking and other constraints limit the number of people that can enter at one time.

A few notes of thanks are very much in order. Elizabeth vanBalen Delphia is the one that brought the kites to light, and she and her husband Michael were outstanding hosts for Kite Day. Fittingly, the young kite, as we shall see, spent nearly the entirety of Kite Day perched high aloft in a snag in their yard. Melissa Krygier is another part-time HAH resident and she regularly monitors the birds and provides updates.

Warren Levicoff was indispensable in providing traffic control and providing information to Kite Day attendees. The Ohio Ornithological Society (join now!) provided everyone who came with background information about Mississippi Kites and other useful materials, including info on the Midwest Birding Symposium. You want another great time, be sure and attend MBS! Jason Larson greeted people, passed out OOS material, and was his usual ebullient self. Also, the management of Hide-A-Way Hills has been great about tolerating this invasion of birders and that's most appreciated.

At least three well-known bloggers made the scene and have or may offer up their take on Kite Day '11: Heather, Kathi, and Susan. Finally, Dane Adams was there with his big gun camera and man oh man, wait until you see the images that he made of these kites! Dane takes amazing images and is always willing to share the fruits of his labor so that I can share them with you, and I really appreciate his generosity and skills.

This is Elizabeth and Michael's driveway, and the young kite spent nearly the entire day atop that spindly dead tree just to the left of that shed in the background. In addition to the 100 birders who had registered for Kite Day, many of the local residents were overcome by curiosity and stopped by for a look. That's Jason Larson in the red, on the right, greeting some visitors.

The vibes from this event are great - especially since the birds cooperated and everyone got to watch the kites to their heart's content. When Elizabeth first approached me with news of these birds and I came down for a look, the setup seemed conducive for safe viewing without bothering the kites. So we hatched Kite Day '10, and that worked well. This year's event was nearly a mirror copy of last year's, except the birds were even more cooperative and there were even more people.

Photo: Dane Adams

The young kite, beautifully ornamented with chestnut chevrons, peers curiously at all of the strange bipeds far below. For the most part, the kites utterly ignore the earthbound masses, scarcely deigning to even glance at us. This young bird is only about two months old and left the nest but two weeks ago or thereabouts. It can fly well, and makes occasional test flights, but cannot yet catch its own food. The adults feed it regularly, and Junior is even good enough to alert us to a feeding by loudly whistling when an adult draws near.

For many people, this was their first experience with Mississippi Kites. These incredibly acrobatic animals are aerialists supreme and great fun to watch. Kite-watching is the antithesis of scrabbling for a look at a rare sparrow in the weeds - this is more like going to the IMAX cinema and seeing the birds plastered up on the big screen. They just can't be missed and provide a lot of action to boot. It was also great to have so many young kids make the scene - we're talking ten and under. We made sure that scopes were dropped to their level and everyone, no matter their size, got good looks.

Photo: Dane Adams

This is a fabulous photo for obvious reasons, but made all the more so because these food exchanges happen with great rapidity. The adult is often in and out in seconds. During the four hours that I was there, the adult kites must have delivered food to the youngster 35 times or more. I spent a fair bit of time watching the young kite when he wasn't feeding. The bird scans the skies like a, well, hawk and I am sure that he watches every move that his parents make. Visually tracking them and closely observing how they manage to capture prey undoubtedly plays a large role in how the young bird will eventually form the skills necessary to master the fine art of deftly plucking small flying insects from the air.

We would also spend time in a nearby field, over which the adult kites would frequently hunt. There are other raptors within HAH and we saw Broad-winged and Red-tailed hawks from this spot, and heard Red-shouldered Hawk.

Photo: Dane Adams

One of the adult Mississippi Kites screams overhead, showing its flashy chestnut primaries. There are very few birds that can fly as well as this species can. A Mississippi Kite is only marginally smaller than a Peregrine Falcon in overall dimensions but weighs only a bit more than a third of what the falcon weighs. This translates to an incredible bouyancy when airborn and an astonishing ability to jig and jag in the blink of an eye. Such skills are required when you make your living by harvestng fare such as dragonflies. Ever try to catch a dragonfly with a big net? It ain't easy and plucking one with small talons must be much harder.

I found this shed exoskeleton of an annual cicada stuck to a tree where we spent most of our time watching the kites. Of the few dozen feeding exchanges that I saw, every one involved a cicada. In one noteworthy session of gluttony, the adults brought Junior three plump cicadas within seven minutes. This big juicy insects serve well in fattening up the little guy for his upcoming big trip.

There were at least three species of annual cicadas singing in the area: Linne's, lyric, and swamp. I'm sure the kites catch them all. Annual cicadas live for several years as bizarre-looking nymphs underground, tapping the juices from tree roots.When their time is up, the nymphs crawl from the ground, starting in early July, and transform into the winged adults. A photo sequence of this transformation can be seen HERE. The kites time their nesting to coincide with the peak annual cicada emergence, thus assuring the young birds wil have an abundant and nutritious food source.

Photo: Dane Adams

The young kite teeters on his perch while holding a chunky cicada. Cicadas do not like being grabbed by the sharp talons or bills of kites, and if not killed quickly will emit incredibly loud screehing buzzes. That audio barrage is their last-ditch effort to try and get the predator to drop them. Once, the adult kite flew in with a cicada in full screech mode and we could hear it from several hundred feet. Last year, we noticed that the young kites seem somewhat intimidated by still screeching cicadas and the adults would have to thoroughly silence the bugs before the youngsters would accept them.

Photo: Dane Adams

Hopefully all while go well for these kites, and in a few months they will be deep in the Amazonian basin of South America. We'll look forward to seeing them back at Hide-A-Way Hills next year. I think we'll be seeing more nesting kites in the Buckeye State in future years, too, as these wonderful raptors continue to expand their range.

Thanks once again to everyone who came out for Kite Day, and to all who worked hard to make the event possible.

Mississippi Kite update

I was able to stop in at Hide-A-Way Hills briefly yesterday morning, and check out Ohio's only currently known nest of Mississippi Kites. I recently wrote about these kites HERE, and HERE. As previously reported, there is one chick in the nest, and it is continually being stuffed with cicadas and other goodies by the adults. As a consequence, Junior is growing like a weed, but is still heavily beset with white down and is still a ways from making its inaugural flight. It appears that we are still on track to aim for Saturday, August 13, for the 2nd annual Kite Day.

Thanks much to Melissa and Elizabeth for getting me into the high security Hide-A-Way Hills compound so I could make these photos and issue this update. And please forgive the lack of crisp frame-filling photos. My biggest lens is a 300 mm, and we really need the big boys and their 500 and 600 mm's to adequately deal with these high-flying kites.

An adult Mississippi Kite launches from its favorite sentinel tree, just a stone's toss from an active nest. We saw both adults, and one or the other would spend a fair bit of time at the summit of this tree, scrutinizing all of the happenings in the area, including us. At one point, a Pileated Woodpecker foolishly entered the sphere of the large white ash in which the kites have made their aerie. As if shot from a cannon, the guard kite hurtled from its perch and into the ash, bushwhacking the woodpecker and delivering a raking blow. In turn, the woodpecker bolted from the tree is if he had been shot out of a slingshot.

An embarrasingly ungraceful landing. We pretended not to notice. Once airborn, Mississippi Kites are impeccable aviators.

An adult wings towards the nest, carrying prey which is probably an annual cicada. As dramatic evidence of their flying abilities, the kites deftly pluck these fast-flying if somewhat clumsy insects from the air. Much more impressive is ther ability to snag dragonflies on the wing. Few animals can outfly a big dragonfly, but they've more than met their match in these kites.

This shot shows the incredible versatility of the wings and tail of these birds. While a Mississippi Kite is not all that much smaller than a Peregrine Falcon in dimensions, it weighs little more than a third the weight of the falcon. This translates to an incredible bouyancy, and an astonishing ability to jig, jag, dive or accelerate with extreme rapidity. Small tweaks and flicks of the tail or primary flight feathers send the bird onto a new course, instantly. If using a car analogy, the kite would be a Mazda Miata, the falcon, a Bugatti Veyron.

Not every scrumptious cicada is delivered to Junior - the adults have to eat, too. Here, one eats its prey on the wing, adeptly transferring the morsel to its bill while tracing languid circles high in the sky.

It's hard to see through the dense foliage, but that's the nest with an adult kite stuffing something into the young kite. This nest is in a good place, high in the spindly boughs of a white ash, where few predators of substance can get at it, and where the adults can keep an eye on it. Except, they chose an ash. We've not yet seen any sign of the emerald ash borer here, but it's coming. That's another story, though, and we - or the kites - don't have to worry about that issue in Hide-A-Way Hills at least for a while.

Stay tuned for kite updates.

Mississippi Kite and kitelet

Quick update on the Hocking County Hide-A-Way Hills Mississippi Kite nest. Melissa Krygier, who has a place in HAWH, has been monitoring these beautiful raptors, and sent along three photos showing their progress. These were taken last Saturday, July 9, and they show a very young, quite fuzzy young kite high in its nest. Normally there'd be two hatchlings - there were two last year - but it appears only one youngster has emerged.

Photo: Melissa Krygier

Our very juvenile kite, a bit of white fuzziness high in its flimsy heronlike nest.

The sharp-eyed baby spots one of the adults and begins to emit its high keening pipes: "hurry, hurry, I'm starving!"

Photo: Melissa Krygier

A hardworking adult flies in and stuffs a morsel into Junior, which will satisfy it for about four or five minutes.

Photo: Jim McCormac

One of last year's kitelets tests its wings. If all goes well, the young kite in Melissa's photos will be conducting test flights in a month or so. The photo above was taken on August 22, 2010 - the date of our first "Kite Day", made possible by HAWH residents Elizabeth vanBalen Delphia and her husband Michael, who have been excellent ambassadors for these rare - in Ohio - raptors.

We hope to have another Kite Day in about a month from now, when Junior Kite is out of the nest and free-flying, yet still being fed by the adults. That's the easiest time to observe the birds, without causing any disruption to them. Stay tuned for details.

Thanks to Melissa for sharing her photos.

Mississippi Kites nest again

Freshly back from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with lots of interesting finds and photos. But more on those experiences later - kites are the news of the day.

Last year, Mississippi Kites were confirmed as nesting in Hide-A-Way Hills (HAWH), Hocking County. The first documented Ohio nesting dates to 2007, when adults were observed feeding a recently fledged juvenile elsewhere in Hocking County. You can read some details about the inaugural nesting HERE. But we never were able to find the actual nest of the pioneering pair. So it was with great excitement that I received a call last summer from Elizabeth vanBalen Delphia, who reported Mississippi Kites that were constantly present near her and her husband Michael's house in HAWH.

Ohio Division of Wildlife photographer Tim Daniel made the trip down a few days later, in mid-August, and not only obtained stellar images of the kites, he found the nest high in the boughs of a white ash. It wasn't long after that and both young birds left the nest and became conspicuous members of the HAWH community. Perched atop lofty dead tree branches, they would constantly exhort the hard-working parents to bring yet another plump cicada.

HAWH is a gated community and locked up tight as a drum. You either have to live there, or have explicit permission from a resident to gain access. But the spectacle of young kites being attended by adults was just too good not to share, so we hatched a plan with Elizabeth and Michael to have an open house "Kite Day", which happened on August 21. You can read all about that event and see photos RIGHT HERE. Dane Adams, who kindly lets me share some of his stunning imagery from time to tiime, was there and took these STUNNING PHOTOS.

Photo: Dane Adams

Well, the kites are back in HAWH this year, and Elizabeth reports that incubation is well under way. Dane was able to visit a few days back, and sent along these photos. Above, one of the kites peers from its leafy abode.

Photo: Dane Adams 

In this photo, the kites are in the act of swapping positions atop the eggs. The sexes share incubation duties, and are probably warming two eggs - a typical clutch size.

Photo: Dane Adams

This may not be the only HAWH nest. There is another pair of kites in the neighborhood, and all signs point to another nest. Elizabeth and Michael are looking, and hopefully will find it. I can attest from personal experience that Mississippi Kite nests are sometimes not the easiest things to find. They often site them high in trees, typically near the trunk, and leaf cover can render the aerie nearly invisible. Mississippi Kites are somewhat colonial in their nesting habits, especially out west, so multiple breeding pairs in HAWH would not come as a total surprise.

Anyway, Elizabeth and Michael have graciously agreed to work with the HAWH administration and establish a day in which interested birders can come witness the spectacle. We want to wait until the young kites are free-flying but still being attended to by the adults, which should be in early to mid August. At that point, the birds just can't be missed, and they are utterly unconcerned with fawning masses of people. Also, the adults can often be observed deftly snagging flying cicadas from the ether, and I'll tell you, that is an aerial feat that is hard to match.

We'll try to provide as much notice as possible of Kite Day 2011, and I'll post up details here and on the Ohio Birds Listserv.

Thanks once again to Elizabeth and Michael for their monitoring of the birds and sharing details with us. And kudos to Dane for his great work.

Kites, untethered

The following photos are courtesy of Dane Adams, and he took them yesterday at the "Kite Day" covered in the previous post. I really appreciate his graciousness in allowing me to reproduce them here. Dane is a fabulous photographer, and these are great photos. Enjoy!

Adult Mississippi Kite, resplendent in tones of black, gray, and white. The bird is strikingly beautiful to us; it is a cicada's worst nightmare.

One of the two juvenile kites produced from the Hide-A-Way Hills nest.

A doting parent lands with a chitinous buzzing morsel of cicada to feed to little beggar.

Thanks again, Dane!

Kite day - success!

The scene shortly after 9 am this morning in Hide-A-Way Hills, Hocking County. This was the site of Ohio's first ever Mississippi Kite Day, and from 9 am until noon the good people of this private, gated resort allowed birders to enter and meet what are rapidly becoming their most famous residents.

Many thanks go out to Elizabeth vanBalen Delphia for finding and bringing the birds to light, then serving as the host for the 60+ birders who came to visit this morning. She and her husband Michael were exceedingly patient and gracious hosts, visiting with everyone and guiding people to the best spots. I also want to thank the management of Hide-A-Way Hills for tolerating this rather out-of-the-ordinary invasion of the human kind. The security staff was great, as everyone else down there has been.

Finally, as is nearly always the case, all of the birders that visited, from as far away as Michigan, were great. Many a life bird was notched and lots of fantastic photos were made. Photographers the likes of Steve Jones, Jerry Talkington and Dane Adams were on the scene, and they'll have much better stuff than mine, but I haven't yet had time to seek their permission to use photos.

One of the subjects of our quest: a freshly minted juvenile Mississippi Kite. There were two of the still downy beasts, and fabulous views at great length were had of both. These guys normally just sit like dummies high in the branches of dead trees - the most conspicuous perches about, the better to beg from. As Mississippi Kites normally have only two young, this means that the pair has successfully fledged both.

When a youngster detects an adult flying back with a morsel, it begins emitting high keening whistles reminiscent of a truncated Olive-sided Flycatcher call. While perhaps annoying to the adult kites, it is great for us on the ground, as we have advance warning of an impending food transfer - one of the exciting moments of kite-watching.

One thing that I love about birders is that most are very gracious about sharing birds with others. We must have had 30 residents of Hide-A-Way Hills stop by today, wondering about the hubbub. Everyone was great about providing scope views and explaining the significance of the kites - read my previous post for more on that - and I am confident that there are some new kite fans as a result. Even some very young youngsters got in on the act, and Dave Slager was good enough to lower his scope to ground level to accomodate these Lilliputian gigglers, who added Mississippi Kite to their life list.

It was fun to watch the young kites flex and test their wings. Theirs is a steep learning curve. In short order, they've got to be fattened to the point where they can make the upcoming multi-thousand mile flight to the jungles of South America, where they'll spend the winter. And even trickier, they have to learn to hunt, and catching favored kite fare on the wing is no small feat.

Every now and then, one of the Juniors would make a test flight, wheeling about and showing off their complex, gorgeous juvenile plumage - very different than the grays and whites of the adults.

We had a scope trained on the nest, which is a tiny flimsy affair that only a Mourning Dove would relate to. It was high in the boughs of a White Ash, Fraxinus americana, and is the first nest of Mississippi Kite found in Ohio.

Most people spent their time watching the juveniles as they sat high aloft, awaiting the return of an adult with food. I saw about ten transfers, and all but two were annual cicadas. Even though we couldn't positively identify the victims to species, we heard Linne's, Lyric, and Swamp cicadas singing in the area and it stands to reason that these were the species that were being caught. On one occasion, a Green Darner dragonfly was brought in, and on another a large sphinx moth was the prey.

A few times, the juvenile kite would shy away from the cicada when it was offered, and the adult would then appear to do a bit of surgery on the bug. I am only speculating, but what I suspect was going on is that the cicada was still alive and struggling. When cicadas are threatened, they make incredibly loud agitated buzzes, and that display may have frightened the young kite, requiring the adult to administer the coup de grace before Junior would accept the meal.

We were treated to some truly outstanding displays of the adult kites' aerial prowess. They seem to trace lazy, languid circles not far above the canopy, but in reality their laser eyes are seeking prey. One group saw a kite stoop and grab a cicada from a pine, the bird apparently spotting it amongst the needles. Usually, they spot their prey as the cicadas make short flights from tree to tree, and swoop in with incredible speed. I saw this happen a few times. The kite would suddenly tuck its wings in and drop like a missile, accelerating faster than a Ducati motorcycle and snagging the hapless insect.

This is huge talent. One just doesn't pip from the egg, stretch its wings, and launch right into 70 mph cicada-nabbing power dives. It seems as if the Junior kites spend lots of time on their snags watching the adults, and probably learning by example. This may be in part why they choose such high conspicuous perches - the better to watch mommy and daddy ply their trade.

It was great to have so many residents of Hide-A-Way Hills stop by and get the chance to view the birds. Everyone seemed quite taken with them, and none of the locals seemed to object to sharing their community with kites that are not tethered to strings.

Mother arrives with a fresh cicada for the begging youngster. Missisippi Kites don't arrive until early June or thereabouts at this latitude, and are very late nesters for a raptor. Makes perfect sense, though. If your preferred food are annual cicadas, you've got to time the arrival of your offspring to coincide with peak cicada abundance and these bugs don't peak until mid to late summer.

By early to mid September, this kite family will be off for the South American tropics to winter. There, in remote jungles, surprisingly little is known of them and how they operate. Come next spring, if all goes well, these birds will begin the long northward flight back to Ohio, hopefully to once again set up residence in Hocking County and Hide-A-Way Hills. And perhaps their offspring will also set up territories of their own nearby, further expanding Ohio's new Mississippi Kite population.

Mississippi Kite nest!

Mississippi Kites are a very new addition to Ohio's breeding avifauna, having only been confirmed as nesters. Read on for a post that I made to the Ohio Birds Listserv today that briefly summarizes the situation:

"Hi all,

Exciting news! An active nest of Mississippi Kites has been discovered
in northern Hocking County. An alert homeowner had tipped me to these
birds a few weeks back, then followed up later with some photos, one of
which showed two adults in the same tree. She continued to monitor them
when possible, and called early yesterday morning to report that a new
bird - heavily striped below - had appeared on the scene. By now it was
clear that there was an active nest nearby. I could not make it down to
the site due to a meeting, but Tim Daniel, photographer for the Ohio
Division of Wildlife, was able to make the trip and Tim deserves major
congratulations for finding the actual nest - the first nest of a
Mississippi Kite discovered in Ohio. We never could find the nest at the
Brass Ring Golf Course in southern Hocking County even though the birds
there obviously nested locally.

As of right now, it appears that the adult kites are still feeding one
youngster in the nest, although the nest is high enough off the ground
and concealed well enough that the contents can't be seen. But when
adult kites are flying to the nest with annual cicadas and stuffing them
into something, you can pretty well be sure there is a kitelet in there
gobbling them up. And the other youngster is already out and
free-flying. Mississippi Kites normally have two eggs per clutch.

Tim took an absolutely incredible series of photos of both the juvenile
and the adults, including a stunner of one of the adults eating a cicada
wile on the wing. I'll post some of these to my blog later tonight:
http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/

It appears that Mississippi Kites are colonizing the Hocking River
Valley and environs. The Brass Ring Golf Course pair in southern Hocking
County came to light in 2007 (Ohio's first breeding record), and the
following year a pair was noted in nearby Athens County, although
nesting wasn't confirmed. Now we have this pair in northern Hocking
County. One has to wonder how many others might be out there, and
hopefully we can look forward to seeing even more future expansion of
this beautiful raptor.

The reason for not getting the word out earlier is that the kite nest is
located in Hide-A-Way-Hills, a private resort that is gated. One cannot
just wander in; permission from a landowner is required and the guard at
the gate must have an authorized name for entry.

We really want to help provide an opportunity for interested parties to
see these birds, and the landowner has very graciously helped to work
out a plan for doing so. She lives in Columbus and is only at
Hide-A-Way-Hills on occasion, but will be there this Saturday morning,
August 21st. So, if you are able to make the trip between 9 am and noon,
we will make sure that you are provided access. If you would like to
visit the kites, please e-mail me your name so that we can provide it to
the gatehouse. I'll send interested parties directions as well. I'd need
to know if you would like to go by 5 pm tomorrow, as it won't be
possible to turn in any names after that.

Sorry for the short notice on this one, but circumstances just didn't
allow for other options."

I really want to thank the Hide-A-Way-Hills homeowner, Elizabeth vanBalen Delphia, for finding the birds and bringing them to light. It is entirely due to her work that we are able to finally document the actual nest of a kite in Ohio. Elizabeth has been fantastic about jumping through hoops to allow birders in to the gated Hide-A-Way-Hills community to see the birds this Saturday, too. It is going to be a major kite party, from 9 am until noon, and many birders are planning on coming.

Tim Daniel of the Ohio Division of Wildlife is one of the Midwest's best wildlife photographers, and you'll see why when you view the following series of photos, taken yesterday. I thank Tim for allowing me to share them here.

Adult Mississippi Kite. You wouldn't want to be a cicada or dragonfly and look over your shoulder to see this view.

Mississippi Kites are not all that much smaller than a Peregrine Falcon, but weigh only a little more than 1/3rd as much as the falcon. Thus, they are light and bouyant; superb aerialists that float gracefully and are incredibly fleet and agile when they want to be. This one has snagged an annual cicada, their preferred food.

Not only do kites deftly pluck large rapid insects such as cicadas and dragonflies out of midair, they also eat them on the wing, such as this one is doing. Probably most of their feeding, both here and in their South American wintering grounds, is done on the wing. Kites patrol low over woodland canopies or rocket down into open gaps and snag big bugs as they fly from cover, or grab dragonflies as they hunt in forest openings.

The newest addition to Ohio's growing Mississippi Kite family. The adult kites are probably still stuffing cicadas into this young one, which is trying to figure out the nuances of plucking small fast objects from the sky.

As was the case with the Brass Ring Golf Course kites in southern Hocking County, this youngster seems to have a favored perch where he sits and begs for food from the hard-working parents. This is an amazing shot by Tim.

Finally, ta-da, the nest. Great work by Tim and Elizabeth to ferret out its location. Mississippi Kites often nest high in leafy canopies of deciduous trees, near the trunk. It can be quite hard to find the little structures, which aren't very substantial. As the adults were observed bringing prey to the nest and stuffing it into something, we can only assume that the other youngster is still home.

My hunch is that Mississippi Kites are not truly "new" nesters in Ohio; rather, they are reclaiming a part of their former range. The first major habitat type to suffer major destruction was Ohio's river floodplain forests and adjacent woodlands, which is primary kite habitat. Early settlers used rivers as highways, floating throughout the Ohio country and establishing settlements along waterways. Along the way, they converted old-growth bottomland forests to rich croplands, and harvested hardwoods from nearby upland forests.

So, the return of Mississippi Kites may well be a positive sign of forest recovery; a long-delayed rebound effect.