Peter's Prospect Park & regional bird sightings

Listowner note:

The following note is a full account from Shane Blodgett, who along with Dale Dyer and Rafael Campos, three highly skilled birders who were the recipients of the 2nd record Mississippi Kite for Prospect Park,seen from the Nethermead Bridge (or Three Arches). Yes, remarkably, there was a first. From records I keep,

The first Mississippi Kite record in Prospect Park occurred exactly 58 years ago, from the Geoffrey Carleton compilation of Prospect Sightings of a Mississippi Kite that spent an amazing NINE days in Prospect Park from May 7th to May 16th, 1950.

I inquired to Shane more details on the last Sunday's sighting regarding the age, location and miscellaneous details. This is Shane's account.

Peter

Subadult - we were standing on the Nethermead arch and
I initially spotted the bird just coming over the
tree line in the direction of the Boulder Bridge-it was
soaring on a thermal, and I was struck by the gray
color of the back and some whitish markings that I
initially thought were the windows of a
Red-shouldered hawk. I also noted that it did not exhibit a
white rump of a harrier. The bird then tucked into a
glide angled on a path parallel to us and moving left
to right, passing over Midwood. It caught another
thermal and began to gain altitude over the Music
Pagoda and was in a full soar for the 1-2 minutes we
studied it before it disappeared over the horizon.
When I say over the Midwood, I meant that was the
direction we were looking, but the bird was quite
distant probably 3/4 mile.

What struck me most were the extremely long and
slender wings, the short outer primary, the battleship
gray body and head, the long tail that was so
gracefully spread (like the opening of a geisha's
fan). I actually could not resolve the banding on the
tail but Dale and Rafael were quite sure on that
point. I could see the outer tail feathers were edged
in white. The bird was also in active molt,missing at
least two inner primaries on each wing

What struck me more than anything was its smooth
flight and the fact i knew for certain that this was a
raptor I had never seen before. I have tons of
experience with both falcons and harriers and this
bird was most assuredly neither. I was the first to say
I thought it was Mississippi Kite and Dale concurred.
Rafael did so also after looking at field guides

Shane

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