ML618589655

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Insane - cruised over me towards breakwater at beach access parking lot. Seen also by Mike Hallett a few minutes later. About an hour later was seen by Stu from turtle dunes briefly perched. First Ontario record of this species! Photos and more details to come later OBRC notes: 1) Circumstances I was just entering the long beach parking lot at the SW end of the park when I noticed a small to medium-sized raptor coming towards me, hardly higher than the large nearby poplars, from the opposite (west) end of the parking lot. From a distance and without bins it gleamed white in the sun nearly reminiscent of a gull. Immediately upon looking at it with bins I recognized it to be a kite and started an involuntary checklist in my head - no forked tail, structure like a MIKI, but the tail was white! Although I had no prior experience with WTKI I recognized it to be one within a couple seconds of having bins on it. As it cruised directly over me, I snapped a few photos and then watched it a few more seconds before it disappeared into the trees. I knew it would soon be going over other birders that I had passed in the campground maybe 20 or 25 minutes before, so I immediately reported the bird to get the word out. It didn't take long before Mike Hallett also observed the bird flying east towards breakwater (only about 2 minutes after me; he hadn't even seen my message yet). It was also seen approximately an hour later by Stu Mackenzie who scoped the now perched bird from a distance at turtle dunes. 2) Description The bird was a small to medium-sized raptor with long, slim wings that tapered at the ends. It had a fairly long, accipiter-like tail which immediately struck me as noticeably white. Unique shape allowed me to recognize it as a kite almost instantly. Body was also very white like a STKI, which I immediately noticed to be different from much darker MIKI I have observed. Wingtips were dark grayish black, though having no prior experience with WTKI, I did not think to notice the WTKI-specific wing pattern until I reviewed photos a couple minutes later. 3) Swallow-tailed Kite was eliminated instantly due to the lack of a forked tail, and both Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites were eliminated to the bright white tail. After originally posting a poor BOC shot, the idea of a pale or washed-out Mississippi Kite was tossed around by others, but this was eliminated when I posted better BOCs which clearly showed the black wrist patches/wing pattern of a WTKI.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Contemporary 015

ISO

100

Focal length

313 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/640 sec

Dimensions

3287 pixels x 2195 pixels

Original file size

3.64 MB