Ranch Naturalists

The Mississippi Kites are back!

I started hearing them close by yesterday, and early this morning I saw one flying overhead. Last year we saw them hanging out in our neighbor’s tree, so I went out today and looked a little closer, hoping to see a nest. I did find what I think is a nest at the top of a tall live oak, but I’m not sure what kind of nest it is.

So today, I went outside to look every hour or so, and this afternoon I saw a kite fly in and land on the very tall pine tree next to the live oak. I spent about an hour watching it, hoping to see it go to the nest.

I was on the curb between my neighbor’s yard and my own, with binoculars and a superzoom camera. It’s a fairly busy street, and I can only imagine what people were thinking.

In my time observing today, I learned three things:

• A gray bird against a gray sky in a brownish gray tree is really, really hard to spot once you lose sight of it.

• Kites can spend a really, really long time preening with their head down. The only time they raise it is when it’s behind a branch.

• Kites do not seem to be bothered by amorous red-bellied woodpeckers a few branches away.1

What I did not learn:

• If the nest I found belongs to the kite.

I did manage to get a series of very bad photos. The angle was bad, the light was poor, branches were in the way, yada yada yada. It was a kite, I like them, and I was going to take some photos, whether it cooperated or not.

After the kite flew away — not in the direction of the nest — another red-bellied woodpecker showed up, and the sexy time commenced. I did not get a photo of that — if my neighbors were concerned about me being out there with binoculars and a camera, filming woodpecker porn would not help my case.

A third woodpecker showed up shortly thereafter, and my, wasn’t that quite the kerfuffle. Not sure who won that one.

That was my afternoon. I apologize for the crappy photos, so here’s one from yesterday of another recent returnee, our brown thrasher.

I’m going to keep an eye on those trees. It will be exciting (well, for me) if we have nesting mississippi kites to watch this spring.