April and May is definitely the time to
hope for Swallow-tailed Kites out on Cape Cod, especially on the outer
Cape. And though they are seen there
most years (9 of the last 13 based on eBird reports), they are still quite a rarity. So it was quite notable when four
Swallow-tailed Kites were reported together on Cape Cod in April 13th, and
likely at least one of these birds was respotted at several locations on the
Cape a few days later. I’ve never even
tried for Swallow-tails on the Cape because they are not typically chaseable – usually
only providing fleeting glimpses over a hawk watch, or just a flyover somewhere
if you were lucky enough to be looking up at the time.
And Swallow-tailed Kites are an extreme
rarity in RI. There was only one
sighting listed on eBird – 1 on 5/15/13 at Swan Point Cemetery in
Providence. That is before this
year. Midday on a Wednesday in mid-April
came a post that a pair of Kites were seen over Hope Valley in southwestern RI –
even though they were apparently first seen early that day. At first I thought about heading out to try
for them, but Swallow-tailed Kites don’t typically stick around. And they only continued at this spot for a
couple more hours that day, so I felt like I made the right decision. They were probably long gone – a one day
wonder. Though I wish I had gotten the
news earlier in the day.
I checked the listserves a few times while
at work on Thursday just in case they might still be in the area. A couple negative posts came across in the
morning so I thought the Kites were certainly gone. But then a positive post came in just before
lunch. I would love to try to chase
after them, but the rest of my day was a busy one and I wouldn’t be able to
break free. I could take the morning off
on Friday, but would they continue? I
would normally think that they wouldn’t stick around that long, but if they
were in the area for two days in a row, maybe they would still be around for a third
day.
Virtually all of the sightings had been
from the URE parking lot in Hope Valley.
It seemed that this spot just happened to have a wide view of the sky,
so many birders just camped out there and waited and hoped for them to fly
by. But then late Thursday came news
that they were also seen feeding much of the day at a mill pond nearby. So if that was their preferred feeding area,
that could greatly increase my odds of finding the birds on Friday. And even though I heard that they were last
seen on Thursday at about 3 PM, I still decided to give them a try on Friday
morning.
I arrived at the URE parking lot about 8 AM
and started to get my bearings. This
spot did give a pretty good view of the sky, and was situated between a large
lake to the north and the smaller mill pond to the south. So it could be a pretty good location if the
Kites were passing between these 2 possible feeding spots. But of course they would have to be pretty
high up in the sky to see them. I next went
down to the mill pond to check out their feeding spot from yesterday. There was already another birder there who
had not spotted them yet. We decided to
trade cell phone numbers, and I would go back to the URE parking lot while he
stayed at the mill pond to double our chances of finding them.
Back at URE I had several flyovers of an
Osprey which got me excited, as did a Cooper’s Hawk, and a Raven flyover was a
good RI bird. But there were no
Kites. About 9:30 I was joined by a
couple MA birders who had missed the birds by minutes the day before. Just then I noticed a raptor high in the sky
to the northwest. I put my binoculars on
it and it was a Swallow-tailed Kite! I
got the other birders on it and we watched it soar high off to the southwest
and out of view. Certainly not great
looks but diagnostic.
I quickly called the birder at the mill
pond and he said he was about to call me – he had a pair of Swallow-tails just
then low over the pond. That meant there
were 3 Kites in the area, though earlier birders never found more than 2. I jumped in my car to see his birds and as I
neared the pond there were his two Swallow-tails right overhead. I hopped out and they were no more than 30
feet over my head. I was able to get
this picture with just my iPhone and no magnification.
They slowly circled overhead, joined a pair
of Red-tails, and got higher and higher in the sky before disappearing off to
the south. Sure seemed like these birds
were moving out of the area. And in
fact, they were not to be seen again. They
were only in view for less than 5 minutes on Friday – I felt very lucky to have
seen them – all 3 of them. Were these the
same birds first seen on Cape Cod nearly 2 weeks earlier? And it’s anyone’s guess where they were off to
next.
RI is only my fifth state for
Swallow-tailed Kite – of course the other 4 being in the deep south (See my statebird map below). It was #320 for my RI list, and the 429th
bird I’ve seen anywhere in New England.
And this was #1,999 for me in New England.
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