We should all just travel around with Charlie DeWitt. Yesterday he was minding his own business watching a track meet at Western Michigan Christian High School on Ellis Road when a Mississippi Kite flew over. Here's his photo:
I checked eBird. There is no Mississippi Kite listed there ever for Muskegon County! (However, it is the 4th recorded sighting in our county. See Chip Frankie’s information in the comments below.)
Then today Mike Boston went to Patterson Park and photographed this Yellow-breasted Chat!
I should quit while I'm behind. Instead I'll mention that Carol spotted this Merlin perched behind our house this afternoon ...
... and this morning I found 42 species at Snug Harbor including this Great Blue Heron catching a fish ...
... a pair of Eastern Kingbirds ...
... plus Green Heron, Red-tailed Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Red-headed Woodpecker (three loudly chasing each other among the trees near the water's edge), Northern Rough-winged Swallow and a female Nashville Warbler.
- Ric
Charlie, great find on the Mississippi Kite. But I hate to tell you I had one at lane's landing a number of years ago. I'd have to look up the date.
ReplyDeleteChip Francke
Chip looked up the records and emailed this:
ReplyDelete“First of all, congratulations to Charlie for the Mississippi kite record. After posting a comment on the MNC web site, I decided to figure out the date I had a Miss. kite in Muskegon County. While doing so, I uncovered others. So, Charlie, your kite is the 4th Muskegon County record. The 1st was 5/25/86 by Tom Smythe, 2nd was my record at Lanes Landing 6/26/04, and 3rd is 6/15/18 (no details found). These records were found on the MBRC web site in their searchable database.
Just thought you might be interested.”