#271

Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis)

I set up before 6 a.m. in a spot that had a decent view of where the kite was seen yesterday. It was overcast and foggy, though, and there didn’t seem to be much possibility of an insect-hawking bird being active.

Just before 8:00 the sun broke through. I only had about an hour before I needed to head home for work, and I was busily scanning trees when a message came through the group chat: “Kite is showing now”.

No one was visible up or down the road from where I was. I texted back “Where?” and started hustling back to my car. “Just north of tennis courts” (a quarter-mile up the road from where I was). A few minutes later I was standing with a group of excited birders checking out my first-ever (and Santa Barbara County’s fourth-ever) Mississippi Kite. I got great views of the bird both perched and flying; the photo above is the best of the ones I digiscoped, though I’m sure there will be spectacular photos available on eBird shortly from the people who were near me with much better equipment.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/174888299296.

keithcurrypochy:

Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis)

Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, FL

Chasing feels so silly sometimes.

Today an out-of-the-area birder reported a juvenile Mississippi Kite along Alisal Road south of Solvang (fun fact: pretty much the same place Sean and Sinéad went for their Sundance retreat a few months ago). Mississippi Kites have only been documented three previous times in Santa Barbara County, and the mood among local obsessives was cautious/pessimistic.

Then the birder posted a photo.

Mark and Joan took off right away. They bird all the time (in fact were out birding already). Mark is #1 in eBird for Santa Barbara County for the year; the closest I’ve been able to get is 9 birds behind him. Joan doesn’t do eBird, I don’t think, but if she did I suspect she’d be ahead of me too.

I didn’t go after it. It was a work day, and though my hours are pretty flexible, taking an hour to drive to Alisal Road and an hour and a half to drive home (b/c of Santa Barbara’s mini rush hour) plus whatever time was spent in between looking for the bird would mean a lot of work time to make up. The fact that the bird had been reported once didn’t mean it would be easy to refind; rarities often keep moving.

Except Joan refound the bird. So I grabbed my binoculars and went.

I ended up spending about two hours walking the road looking across the golf course toward where the bird had been seen last. At that point, hot and getting hungry, I gave up, said goodbye to the birders who’d been there searching with me, and headed home.

Shortly after arriving, as I was about to eat dinner, the group chat came to life again: Conor and Julie (who were on the Big Pine Mountain Survey with me last weekend) had arrived shortly after I left, and Julie had refound the bird.

Sigh. I didn’t drive back. But I’ve set my alarm for 4 a.m.

Chasing feels so silly sometimes.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/174875176871.