Hi everyone,



Sorry for the brief messages earlier--was hoping someone else was at the

park and could look up and see the kite. Anyway, while I was not able to

find the White-eyed Vireo at Lake Girard Park, I did find a 1st-summer

Mississippi Kite that gave excellent views. Below are some notes that I

entered into eBird and MOURC.



**VERY RARE. I wasn't having much luck finding the vireo, so I started

scanning for raptors, herons or other flyovers given the hot conditions. The

first raptor I saw was a first-summer MISSISSIPPI KITE! It was circling

slowly, perhaps 175 meters overhead and slightly to the east. It circled and

glided the entire time I watched it. It got within about 50 meters at it's

closest, when it dropped and caught something (dragonfly perhaps) and ate in

on the wing. It eventually drifted off to the north.



I immediately knew what it was by it's shape and flight style. It was

similar in shape to a Peregrine, but slightly narrower wings, narrower tail

and more fluid wingbeats. It's body appeared largely gray, pale head with

dark around the eyes (eye color not seen well). There may have been one or

two indistinct streaks on the lower belly and perhaps a bit of faint

smudging on undertail coverts, but the overall appearance of the body was

gray. The underside of the wings appeared darker with primaries appearing

brownish (worn and lighting). The tail had two distinct tail bands, at least

on the innermost rectrices; the outermost appeared uniform. Most of the

underwing coverts appeared mottled/streaked with buffy, but those nearest

the wings (greater primary and secondary coverts) appeared almost as a

darker band with pale tip. These feathers may have had pale centers, but it

was too far to be certain. Most of the time, and when the bird was distant

away, it appeared fairly uniform below, and could have been mistaken for an

adult were it not for the tail, rather worn (faded, not heavily abraded)

primaires and secondaries, and the "unkept/messy" look to the underwing

coverts. I did not see the upperparts well.



Best,

Chris Wood



eBird & Neotropical Birds Project Leader

Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York

http://ebird.org

http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu



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