where it apparently touches down in new nesting areas hundreds of miles distant from all previously known sites. How many hopeful, knowing birders all across the United States scan the skies each spring trying to be the first to find it in their home counties?Įncouraging their attitude is the species’ hopscotching M.O. Mississippi Kites have been pushing west toward the Pacific and north toward Canada for at least the last 60 or 70 years. If you live west or north of the kite’s known range, even far beyond its current borders, you should probably have the species on your list of “birds to watch for,” because it strays regularly and can appear almost anywhere, especially from late spring through early summer. The prey is most often grasshoppers, cicadas, dragonflies, and other large insects, which the bird will capture and happily consume on the wing as you follow with your binoculars. So frequently does the kite hang in air as if suspended, or soar as if there were nothing in the world to do but soar, that we are surprised when we see it stoop at a White-necked Raven, or descend with a roar of its wings upon its prey.” “On the wing is graceful, buoyant, usually deliberate,” ornithologist and painter George Miksch Sutton observed, “The square-tipped tail tilts this way and that as the bird directs its course with caution. Is there a bird watcher anywhere in the Lower 48 who does not feel affection for the Mississippi Kite? If you live within its ever-expanding breeding range and have been lucky enough to study a kite or two (or five) circling overhead, you know that odd mix of hesitancy and dash that makes its flight so delightful. The approximate time it takes to paddle from Pump House to Pine Tree landing is 3 hours (if traveling with the tide-longer if not).How can I protect the baby birds in a nest from predators including snakes, cats, and other birds? Check the tides before you plan your trip: the tidal delay for this stretch of river is about 6.0 hours off the Charleston, SC tide projections. The Conservancy’s Black River Preserve is a 60 mile trip from Charleston, should take you about an hour and twenty minutes. You can report sightings online on Conservancy preserves or elsewhere. A citizen-science project allows bird enthusiasts across the region to report sightings of swallow-tailed kites. In fact, the corridor is considered one of the most important breeding areas in South Carolina for swallow-tailed kites, a striking black-and-white raptor that depends on bottomland forest habitats to survive. Traveling through the swamp one is likely to encounter wild turkeys, wood ducks, yellow-bellied sliders, and the occasional American alligator.īird enthusiasts seek this destination as a place to see prothonotary warblers, pileated woodpeckers, and the state-endangered swallow-tailed kite. Fishermen tuck themselves into the sloughs and creeks while kayakers thread through the watery maze trying to follow the main channel. Although the pull of the tide can still be felt, the water moves slowly here as it pushes through the wetland forest. The floodplain forest widens and the river narrows between the towering cypress trees. Paying a visit to the scenic narrows of the Black River is a must for any outdoor enthusiast.
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