Rickubis Bird Page #2d: Kites
This page was born 10/16/2024  Rickubis designed it.  (such as it is.) Last update:
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Welcome to Brazos Bend State Park. That's me on the trail at BBSP in August of 2019. I've collected my captures of Kites here. Kites are not Hawks, or Ospreys, or Eagles...but are different species
in multiple genera in the subfamily Buteoninae. For example, Mississippi Kites are in the genus Ictinia. So, they'll appear here as I get images. 

I had to alter my workout at Memorial Park while the park was recovering from hurricane Beryl and the rain after it. I added a run/walk component that allowed me to
cross both of the new land bridges (opened for public use February, 2023).  My workouts start around 10am and can finish around noon. During this time,
 I've also been treated to the occasional encounter with Nature, throughout the park. While I crossed the top of the land bridges, I noticed Mississippi Kites
(Ictinia mississippiensis)  flying overhead...and they were also very close by. This happened a few times, so one morning, I decided to bring my camera and
skip the workout.  On 08/09/2024  I just picked one of the bridges (Kinder Land Bridge-East Lawn), since the Kites foraged at both of them. 


Unfortunately, when I got to the top, I found one of the park staff was mowing the area. I still saw Kites flying, but near the other side. It wasn't long before the mower left,
and the Kites briefly flew over "my" bridge, also. A few made some good close passes (one good video!) But then they moved stopped flying by. (10:24) So I walked to the
other part of the land bridge (West Lawn). (10:47) The last two images below show the East side of the West bridge, as I walked to the Kinder West Lawn.

At first, it seemed like the few Kites that started flying were going to stay near the bridge that I'd just left--but then they started hunting near me! The first image below left
shows the West side of the East bridge while I'm standing on the West bridge looking East (ha ha...is that clear?).  At one point, there were at least 4 Kites flying around me.
With so much going on, it was hard to pick a single bird to follow and try to photograph. I've edited just two of the video clips into this file. They've been slowed down a lot
but still show some camera shake. And...we can see them eating something they're holding in a talon as they fly. They're usually insectivores, so it's most likely they're eating
insects (the second image below shows a Kite carrying an insect).

A few times, they flew by just 10 or 15 yards from me--across the close-cropped circular sidewalk!  I shot a lot of pictures (and a bit of video), and at least a few of them came
 out ok. The immature Kites have dark stippled markings while the adults are mostly shades of grey.


I shot some very shaky video clips. Some of the clips show the Kites eating prey (insects) that they held in their talons as they flew. I was lucky to catch that, but didn't
manage to see the Kites grab something. I may upload the video soon. The first two pictures below show the West Lawn as Kites flew over.
   
 

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