Chuck Caron and I visited the Gonet Drive Mississippi Kite nest site in Newmarket, New Hampshire this morning 8/1/2009. Amazingly, two pairs of the Mississippi Kites nested for the 2nd consectutive year in Newmarket. The Main Street nest apparently was a failure this year and one chick had recently been reported at the Gonet site.
Earlier in the morning we bumped into Len Medlock in Seabrook, he had proclaimed the birds a Guarantee! These types of statements often times can spell disaster, a certain jinx, then you may have to listen to others say "ya shoulda been here yesterday...last week...etc. Fortunately for us, Len's good word held true to form and we enjoyed spectacular looks at 2 adults and the single chick in the nest......a fine "showing".
The perched birds were photographed "through the scope", flight shots "through the bins".
Shortly after our arrival an adult (this appears to be a female) was spotted by Chuck, it perched near the car and began sunning itself.
It remained in place for several minutes...
...preening...
...posed...
Afterwards we managed nice looks at the youngster.
Which appears to be growing nicely and hopefully will fledge within a few weeks...if I recall correctly the big numbers of migrants pass through Texas later in August...perhaps these northern breeders will be "bringing up the rear".
We enjoyed watching at least 2 adults (the one above an apparent male) in flight, catching dragonflys returning to the nest to feed the chick perhaps a dozen times.
Earlier in the morning we bumped into Len Medlock in Seabrook, he had proclaimed the birds a Guarantee! These types of statements often times can spell disaster, a certain jinx, then you may have to listen to others say "ya shoulda been here yesterday...last week...etc. Fortunately for us, Len's good word held true to form and we enjoyed spectacular looks at 2 adults and the single chick in the nest......a fine "showing".
The perched birds were photographed "through the scope", flight shots "through the bins".
Shortly after our arrival an adult (this appears to be a female) was spotted by Chuck, it perched near the car and began sunning itself.
It remained in place for several minutes...
...preening...
...posed...
Afterwards we managed nice looks at the youngster.
Which appears to be growing nicely and hopefully will fledge within a few weeks...if I recall correctly the big numbers of migrants pass through Texas later in August...perhaps these northern breeders will be "bringing up the rear".
We enjoyed watching at least 2 adults (the one above an apparent male) in flight, catching dragonflys returning to the nest to feed the chick perhaps a dozen times.
2 comments:
Glad you were able to get a better look at them this time Tom. Great shots. Love the ones of the chicks and the ones in flight!
It was great to see them active comeing and going from feeding the chick as well as catching dragon flies.
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