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Saturday, August 19, 2017

Mississippi Kites Come to Boomer Lake!


                                                                  Adult Green Heron


                                                                 Yellow-billed Cuckoo
                                                              (rain crow or storm crow)


                                                             Juvenile Mississippi Kite


                                                                         Ditto


                                                             Adult Mississippi Kite


                                                                     Ditto, a Day Later



080717 through 081917

Photos were few and far between due to high heat indices.  Quite simply, neither the birds nor I were out for any more than necessary.

As tropical as our state bird, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is, it has taken refuge elsewhere, as have the kingbirds.  These things happen.

But, by the same token, Mississippi Kites have come out of the neighborhoods and others are beginning to head south.  As a matter of fact, on Friday, we had nine of them at Boomer Lake, the greatest number that I have ever seen.  They were perching between a large oak and an even larger bald cypress tree on the southeast corner of the lake.

I had three juveniles in a tree with an adult.  As you can see, one of the juveniles was looking right at me.  Originally, I only saw the adult, and a passerby happened to see one of the juveniles perched over the adult's head.  I then scanned the tree and located the other two.  The youngster facing me was quite vocal, so that bird was easy to find.

I saw a juvenile Mississippi Kite in the air last year, but was unable to obtain a good photo due to the deflection of the sunlight.  This year's shots were so much better, including a shot of my juvenile calling the familiar, "PEE-teeeerrrrr!"  Notice the first shot of the juvenile with its beak open.

Other shots include the Yellow-billed Cuckoo from Boomer Creek on Aug. 11.  I saw my first juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker out there, too, but the photo is poor.  I believe that bird was hatched here, as it was still in the company of a parent.

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