White-tailed Kite 2799
It was a cold January day, but the skies were as clear as could be, and I thought I'd go to Coyote Hills in Fremont to see if I could find anything. Coyote Hills had been good to me with Wugeons, Blue-winged Teals, Shovelers, Coyotes, and even a skunk, but I'd come up dry the last four trips. Coyote Hills is 63 miles from home, 63 miles and five freeways, and I was going to find something.
We were there for over an hour, and I saw nothing. Then, at the base of the highest hill, a white bird flashed by. I thought it was some gull, but I didn't care; I was in no mood to trifle. I started to run uphill to catch up to this bird. Finally, it perched on a dead tree at the very top of the hill. I ran, and fianlly, I saw that this was a White-tailed Kite. I wasn't going to let it take off without an attempt. Everty 15 or 20 feet, I'd stop, focus, and shoot in burst mode.
I probably got 50 decent images, but I wouldn't know until I got home. I had seen a mating pair at Carquinez Strait marsh several times, but they stayed close to the nest in a palm, and it was just too far away. Now, I had one within 100 feet of me.
The white-tailed kite (Elanus leucurus) is a small raptor found in western North America and parts of South America. "The coloration of the white-tailed kite is gull-like, but its shape and flight is falcon-like, with a rounded tail." No wonder I thought it was a gull. The white-tailed kite was rendered almost extinct in California in the 1930s and 1940s due to shooting and egg-collecting, but they were making a recovery, something that I would have to do when I got home. White-tailed kites feed principally on rodents (as well as small opossums, shrews, reptiles, amphibians and large insects),
White-tailed kites have been observed in aerial combat at the margins of territories, locking talons in a behavior described as "grappling," and they are readily seen patrolling or hovering over lowland scrub or grassland. I wasn't taking any chances. (I went back three more times, but never saw another kite. One of this series is hanging on my wall. The backstory continues, but let's just say that that uphill climb led to a cardiologist, but I still had a few mountains in my future.)
White-tailed Kite 2799
It was a cold January day, but the skies were as clear as could be, and I thought I'd go to Coyote Hills in Fremont to see if I could find anything. Coyote Hills had been good to me with Wugeons, Blue-winged Teals, Shovelers, Coyotes, and even a skunk, but I'd come up dry the last four trips. Coyote Hills is 63 miles from home, 63 miles and five freeways, and I was going to find something.
We were there for over an hour, and I saw nothing. Then, at the base of the highest hill, a white bird flashed by. I thought it was some gull, but I didn't care; I was in no mood to trifle. I started to run uphill to catch up to this bird. Finally, it perched on a dead tree at the very top of the hill. I ran, and fianlly, I saw that this was a White-tailed Kite. I wasn't going to let it take off without an attempt. Everty 15 or 20 feet, I'd stop, focus, and shoot in burst mode.
I probably got 50 decent images, but I wouldn't know until I got home. I had seen a mating pair at Carquinez Strait marsh several times, but they stayed close to the nest in a palm, and it was just too far away. Now, I had one within 100 feet of me.
The white-tailed kite (Elanus leucurus) is a small raptor found in western North America and parts of South America. "The coloration of the white-tailed kite is gull-like, but its shape and flight is falcon-like, with a rounded tail." No wonder I thought it was a gull. The white-tailed kite was rendered almost extinct in California in the 1930s and 1940s due to shooting and egg-collecting, but they were making a recovery, something that I would have to do when I got home. White-tailed kites feed principally on rodents (as well as small opossums, shrews, reptiles, amphibians and large insects),
White-tailed kites have been observed in aerial combat at the margins of territories, locking talons in a behavior described as "grappling," and they are readily seen patrolling or hovering over lowland scrub or grassland. I wasn't taking any chances. (I went back three more times, but never saw another kite. One of this series is hanging on my wall. The backstory continues, but let's just say that that uphill climb led to a cardiologist, but I still had a few mountains in my future.)