Haven't heard much about the Mississippi kite at the Hocking Co golf
course. Has anyone seen one recently? Well, has anyone missed it?
        A familiar scenario seems to be playing itself out in southern New
Hampshire, where 2-3 Mississippi kites have been reported in recent
days, with a pair seen sharing a tree in a yard. If they nest, this
would certainly be a northernmost record for recent times. Kites in
general seem to be on the rebound, and some interesting articles have
been written about this recovery. Overall, the consensus seems to be
that they, like other raptors, have of course benefited from reduced
persecution and pollution, but also they enjoy more than other raptors
habitats created by humans--notably opened forests--and are more
tolerant of our presence.
        Swallow-tailed kites are bouncing back, too, but more slowly. During
the 19th century this species was said to be a fairly common nester in
Ohio. An astonishing number of northern records came to light in the
1870s and 1880s, before this species' rapid withdrawal from its former
range. I found an egg in the OSU Museum that dated from 1878 in northern
New Hampshire! The NH records committee rejected this record, largely
because it seemed just too hard to believe, but there are a lot of
published records from the period that seem unlikely today: records of a
flock of 50 observed in North Dakota on November 11, 1881, a pair of
kites spending the entire winter 1877-78 in S. Dakota, and a statement
in Merriam's "Birds of Connecticut" (1877) reporting winter residents in
Vermont. Eaton, in "The Birds of New York," relates reports of resident
pairs in June & July in New York near the Vermont border in 1886, 1891,
and 1900, though conclusive physical evidence (birds were collected, but
not eggs) of breeding was lacking. There were lots of nestings reported
from northern Minnesota. We had three promising Ohio reports last year,
not all of which have been looked at by our Records Committee yet.
Pretty good for a species most of us look for only in south Florida today!
        Anyway, Mississippi kites seem to reoccupy former nesting sites with
some fidelity, and--as in southern Indiana--more seem to arrive to nest
in areas where pioneering breeders have succeeded.
Kite interesting,
Bill Whan
Columbus



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