Re: blue jay vs swallow-tailed kite

["Greg" <cbirdpro@ix.netcom.com>]

> hi y'all,
>     this eve a few mi. south of conway on us hwy 701, observed a blue jay in
> dogged pursuit of a STKI. i had to laugh. what's up with that, i wondered?
> the kite steal a grasshopper from it?

A few years back while on my way to the Francis Marion NF/Santee area of SC
to look for and hopefully video tape, of all things, STKI, I saw two birds
hunting.  Along #501, well before I expected to be in the STKI "zone,"  I
spotted two birds soaring, dipping, and diving in and out of the roadside
trees just ahead of me--what luck!

The two birds, one an adult STKI (it was molting) the other a HY, were in
the midst of what I took to be a "lesson period".

Needless to say, I pulled over and broke out the camera, shot, and observed.
After about fifteen minutes of watching these birds' gracefull flight, the
adult seemd to concentrate on one small area around a small tree or shrub.
It circled, made a move to go in, circled again and came back for another
pass.  It didn't seem to mind me standing about 30 yards away.

Finally the kite went into the shrub.  It came out of the shrub with
something small, grey-brown, and wildly flapping and dangling from the its
feet--an adult N. Mockingbird in hot, and very noisy, pursuit.

After few minutes (don't know exactly how many minutes, 2,5,7?) an adult
STKI, with the same molt pattern, came back in to the same shrub for another
little mocker, the adult Mockingbird again in pursuit.

The next time the HY STKI came into view, it was eating on the wing, as was
the adult.

Perhaps the Blue Jay on US #701 used to live over on #501.

I think STKIs take birds, at least young ones, on a regular basis.  It seems
like easy pickin's for a swift, agile flier like a kite.  I once saw one
take a parrot (don't know which parrot species, might have even been a
"Budgy") in Florida.  I didn't actually see the "take" but saw the kite go
into the trees, heard a loud squawk, then saw the kite soaring with
something bright green in its talons, something green and feathery drifting
earthward each time the hawk reach down to eat.


-----
Greg Dodge
Brownbag Productions
Hillsborough, NC
brownbagproductions.com


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