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SWALLOW-TAILED KITE ON OUTERBANKS
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: SWALLOW-TAILED KITE ON OUTERBANKS
- From: "Brad Carlson" <bradcarlson1@hotmail.com>
- Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 18:56:12 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
My wife Pat and I just returned home from a weekend of birding on the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in VA on Saturday and the NC Outerbanks today.
Highlights on Saturday included a female COMMON EIDER on Island #4 and a
female HARLEQUIN DUCK on Island #4. A second female HARLEQUIN DUCK was on
Island #3. Other expected species were four BRANDT and a pair of
LONG-TAILED DUCKS on Island #1. GREAT CORMORANTS, PURPLE SANDPIPERS, SURF &
BLACK SCOTERS were found on all, or flying by all islands. An early TREE
SWALLOW was on Island #1 as well.
On Sunday we birded the Outerbanks from Oregon Inlet South to Cape Point.
Birding was ridiculously slow all morning. An early PURPLE MARTIN in Salvo
and one MERLIN near Avon is about it. At Cape Point there were literally
about one hundred gulls total. Of that, we counted seven LESSER
BLACK-BACKED GULLS. Where was the Thayers Gull we still have not been able
to see?
We had just given up at about 1:00pm and started heading back North on Rt.
12 to go home. We had not driven one mile North of Avon when I commented to
Pat on how few birds we saw all day. As I made this comment, I saw a bird
flying close (50 feet) and parallel to us over her shoulder. I expected to
see a Ring-billed or Herring Gull, but when I focused on it...... I said
"Holy ....!!!" I possibly said a few other obscenities as well. In any
case, I started yelling for her to look at the SWALLOW-TAILED KITE right
beside us!!! I could not believe what we were looking at. The
SWALLOW-TAILED KITE continued flying with us at about 5-10 mph, typically
always within 100 feet of either side of Rt. 12, and lower than the power
lines adjacent to the road. We repeatedly drove ahead of it, stopped and I
jumped out of the Explorer to take point blank pictures of it. We continued
this pattern for two (2) hours all the way up and through Salvo, and then up
to the North end of North Pond at Pea Island. As soon as we found the bird,
we called Jeff Lewis and Pat Moore hoping that someone on the Outerbanks
would get to share the experience with us. About an hour into the chase,
Jeff called on our cellphone to tell us that he was headed South from
Roanoke Island to join us. He found us at Pea Island around 3:00pm and was
able to get on this beautiful bird. For Jeff, it was Dare County lifer.
For me, it was a NC state life, and for Pat it was a "true" lifer that gave
an unbelievable show for her (us)! Wow!!!
March 10th has to be one of the earliest records for North Carolina. I was
just down in Florida last week, and the local birders said that the
Swallow-tail Kites had just returned at the end of February.
-Brad & Pat Carlson
Winterville, NC
BradCarlson1@hotmail.com
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