Ever wonder why the STKI and not the MIKI formally ranged naturqlly
throughout the Great Plains N to CAN and east through the Great Lakes?
  It is the Mississippi Kite that takes to near excluvity large flying
insects i.e. dragonflies, etc.  Any thoughts of "returning: STKI to
their former glory is likely to nothing but fancy: STKI is a common
resident old growth extensive tracts of mature moist forests and
grasslands, the later for which hundreds of post breeding birds and
birds of the year congregate in AUG before moving south.  Common
practice in the coastal plain of SC and GA even today.  Kites are
aerial birds and it is weather, humid systems from the south that
bring them STKI N in summer, probably the Mississippi Valley which
widens near the southern Great Lakes, to include the Ohio Valley in
central OH and the N Scoito watershed.  STKI is a strikingly long
winged, long bodied bird, for plucking food from extensive forest
canopy not from air which it can do and does here out of neccessity
because it never meant to do.   Its favorite food is arboreal reptiles
and amphibians, once abundant now in short supply.  Like the Broad
winged Hawk, this preferred diet is a main factor for leaving the US
in winter.

David Tan
Columbus

On Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 11:56 AM, Robert Stalnaker
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
> Hello Bill and All,
>
> The Common Green Darner is one of the larger dragonflies and it is one of the small number that do migrate.  Swallow-tailed Kites (STKI) feeding on these in mid-August here in Florida get more energy absorbed per the same energy expended versus the smaller dragonflies, and it is a popular food item of STKI immediately before the STKI migrate.
>
> Here in central FL, there is a dramatic uptick in Common Green Darners migrating in, augmenting existing ones, in mid-August and that coincides with the last large feeding aggregations of STKI before they migrate.  We are talking only about a 10 day window here.  This is what I have observed and I am hoping there is a statistical based study done in the future to show a positive correlation of these two events.   I believe there is a study out there that was done with American Kestrels and dragonflies re migration.
>
> It is possible STKI could move north as you say then come south again as the Common Green Darners continue to move south.  After watching STKI feed, they are so skilled in catching even small insects that I personally don't think they need to migrate north in search of prey.  They seem to be able to get all the food they want.
>
> Re your, "Dragonflies, and their predators, continue to diminish." ......  Yes, so sad and true.  Prey continues to shrink as pesticides grow in use as human population grows, and that will likely have yet another negative effect not only on the prey numbers but on the STKI as well as a huge number of insects and birds that are already in a downward trend.
>
> Bob Stalnaker
> Longwood, FL
>
>
> On Sunday, August 17, 2014 9:58 AM, Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
>
> I gather that only 1% of the world's dragonfly species undertake
> migrations, but apparently some large and tasty ones pass heading south
> in the US each fall in large numbers, and some birds specialize in
> eating them. Some of them are large enough to be too much to handle for
> the average bird, but raptors like kites prey on them. Because large
> numbers of these dragonflies--and it would be great to hear from
> dragonfly-watchers about this--must pass through Ohio this time of year,
> it seems that a few of the bird species adept at catching them, like
> kites, might move north to intercept them. This still seems to have been
> the case in recent years, rare as it is.
>         Formerly--and we are talking about 150+ years ago--the
> swallow-tailed kite had a range into southern Canada, where they no
> doubt ate dragonflies that no doubt also had a northerly range.
> I read in an 1854 work on hunting in Wisconsin that these kites were "at
> one time quite numerous on our prairies, and quite annoying to us in
> grouse shooting.” Coues in 1874 had extensive remarks on its presence in
> North Dakota at the time. Ohio's Wheaton reported a kite shot near
> Pataskala in my area on 8/22/1878. which was first thought to be a bald
> eagle from P.T. Barnum's show and discarded, then eventually rescued,
> though the specimen has since apparently been lost.
>         It's probably unwise to celebrate that these charming birds are
> returning to our latitude in larger numbers. We just have more observers
> who report birds than we used to. Dragonflies, and their predators,
> continue to diminish. A few lucky Ohioans may get to see one during the
> warm months, but if you want to get a taste of their former abundance,
> there are some Florida spots that still routinely provide hundreds of
> them at a time at this time of year...what a show!
> Bill Whan
> Cols
>
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-- 
David Tan
Columbus
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