ML620730840

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Definitely the highlight of the day, in part because of this being a new addition to the yard list for home. The first group was encountered just after arriving home. Noticed a group of fairly distant birds circling in the air off to the north that didn't appear to be vultures (were too slender and graceful in flight). Quickly grabbed binoculars and was able to see it was a group of about four or five Mississippi Kites. They seemed to be slowly working their way north, circling as they went, so had just enough time to get out the camera and take a few (by now quite distant) photos. Then about a half hour later, was out on back porch watching the sky for potentially any more kites that might be moving north (or migrants of any kind for that matter), and eventually saw a couple vultures, along with a Red-tailed Hawk, and then within seconds another group of MIKIs! This group was larger, containing about nine kites, and was moving off fairly quickly to the E. or NE. They initially started off closer than the first group, but seemed to be moving off faster, so were not in view for more than perhaps 30 to 40 seconds. Managed to get several photos, but all were of fairly distant birds. Seems to be a good spring for movement of Mississippi Kites through Burnet County; over the last week I've seen quite a number of eBird checklists submitted (mostly from various locations in the Balcones Canyonlands NWR) which contained observations of kites. Haven't seen this many reported in the county since moving here in 2021. One list reported a total of something like 90 MIKIs. Species #99 for the yard list (not including a pair of fly-over Mallards from a few months ago, which eBird considered "escapees" apparently, and did not add to the list total). No matter; just one more to reach 100 on the yard list!

Technical information

Model

DSC-RX10M4

ISO

100

Flash

Flash did not fire

Dimensions

1262 pixels x 977 pixels

Original file size

65.62 KB