This morning I drove two hours south to Lincoln State Park. This is the only place in Indiana that I'm aware of where Mississippi Kites are reliable. The park represents the northernmost limit of their range in this part of the country. Why they don't extend farther north, where the habitat is exactly the same, I don't know. The kites have been breeding in the park yearly since the early 1990s.
While hiking on a trail through the woods to reach a pond where the kites have been seen, I found GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER (Indiana state bird number 205, year bird number 182) and Summer Tanager (year bird number 183).
No luck at the pond, but when I got back to my car in the parking lot, a MISSISSIPPI KITE (Indiana state bird number 206, year bird number 184) was "kiting" for insects overhead. I was able to watch it for about five minutes as it caught insects on the wing with its talons and eat them in mid-air. After the kite flew out of sight, I drove over to another pond where kites have been seen, and saw another Mississippi Kite attacking a Broad-winged Hawk (year bird number 185). In all, I saw four or five kites, although I may have seen individual birds more than once.
My streak for finding new Indiana state birds continues.
Posted by Birdingdave at May 22, 2004 10:00 PM