[mou] Possible White-tailed Kite - Ramsey County

[PLCNClements@frontiernet.net]

Date: June 12, 2004
Time: Aprox. 9:15 AM
County: Ramsey
Location: About .5 miles east of White Bear Avenue on Co. Rd. C near the
soccer fields (which are on the north side of Co. Rd. C).
Observer: Pat Clements
Equipment: Naked Eye
Distance: As close as 100 yard to 150 yards.

Sorry for the delay as we just got home from the tournament.

Observation: I was looking up from the game and looking south. I saw a
white looking bird flying north. I observed the bird for about 6
minutes. At first I thought it was a gull of some kind. As the bird got
closer I could see wings that looked very Tern like (sharp and somewhat
turned back). The wing beats were fairly slow - then the bird looked
like it did a summersault in mid-air. As it moved closer I could see
what it was really doing - It was hovering. It did this quite a few
times as it neared our location. At it's closest I could see it had a
white face, a somewhat dark elongated looking eye, light gray back and
upper wings and mostly white looking from below with darker looking
wing patches. It would occasionally hold it's wings in a high V like
Rock Doves sometimes do. When it would hover, it would fan it's tail
quickly out while beating it's wings to stall it mid-air. I am guessing
it was grabbing insects, as there were a lot of large dragonflys about.
This was due the marsh accross the north-side of Co. Rd. C and also one
behind our fields on the north-side of the soccer fields.

Size wise I would say that it was close to the size of a Common Tern.

I have seen a numbrer of White-tailed Kites on birding trips to the Rio
Grande River area of Texas, and as best I could tell with out the use
of binoculars - this is what this bird looked like. I have scoured my
field guides and cannot find another bird that looks like, or behaves
like, this bird did.

The bird finally moved off to the east and I lost it from sight.

Thanks... Pat Clements