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SWALLOW-TAILED KITE ON OUTERBANKS



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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