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Non-Random Encounters With Swallow-Tailed Kites

Not a symbol of grace but grace itself

By Amethyst QuPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Photos of flying Swallow-Tailed Kite by the Author

“Our most beautiful bird of prey... Hanging motionless in the air, swooping and gliding, rolling upside down and then zooming high in the air with scarcely a motion of its wings, the Swallow-tailed Kite is a joy to watch.”-- The Audubon Guide to North American Birds

Although it is hardly "ours," for many birds are year-round residents of South America. Here in southeast Louisiana, I look for them each breeding season, knowing in advance I will see many Mississippi Kites for every Swallow-Tail.

Always it's a special thrill when I spot one low above the yard. Not long ago, I saw one hovering over the neighbor's magnolia tree.

Hunting lizards, perhaps? We have so many displaying Carolina anoles this time of year. The males dress in shades of spring green and puff their bright red dew-laps in pride. I always think of Kites as catchers and eaters of our abundant dragonflies-- but, of course, they'll take the healthy protein from those show-off lizards too.

Swallow-tailed Kite in search of prey / Photo by the Author

Scribbles from an online diary

Over the years, I have often noted the appearance of these magical birds in my diary. Flipping through the (virtual) pages, I quickly find examples.

May 10, 2021

Swallow-tailed kite goes any lower, it would pick up that barky dog next door

May 17, 2017

The most perfect Swallow-tail Kite in the world flew right over my head!

July 11, 2008

Whoa. Just saw a Swallow-tailed Kite getting chased out of the yard airspace by a Blue Jay.

March 31, 2006

As I was unloading the groceries from the car, a Swallow-tailed Kite came and soared low over my head -- almost low enough to touch. Hell, so low I didn't believe what I was seeing for a minute.

Of course, since I live in southeast Louisiana, there is a shift in tone to my diary after August 2005. Sometimes I'm not in the mood to visit that earlier record from the before. It is enough to revisit the aftermath.

March 16, 2006

I just spotted a Swallowtail Kite outside the window going in circles. Poor kite. All of the oak trees that the kites used last year for courting exchange and nesting material are gone, gone, gone. I'm a little surprised to see the bird at all.

I don't flip back any further in time. Instead, I move forward again.

March 19, 2009

I just saw five Swallow-Tailed Kites circle low, around and around the house and the neighborhood. They checked out the place where the Andrew tree [an oak which fell in Hurricane Andrew, 1992] and the other oak trees used to be, such as the evil-doer that smashed our house [Tropical Storm Bill, 2003].

The rest of the oaks came down in [Hurricane] Katrina [2005], of course, but I guess the Swallow-Tails are still looking for them. Good, close views of those beautiful birds against a blue sky.

How long will they remember, and how long will they keep looking? Or maybe there are so few big trees now that they just look everywhere.

Encounters

A wide-ranging bird like the Swallow-tailed Kite is not a bird you see on rare occasions, faint and far between. It is a bird of many places frequently encountered in the Americas.

And yet, a day with a Swallow-tail in it can never be commonplace. Thanks to the bird's beauty, many of these encounters live forever in memory.

Two examples.

Once, twenty years ago, I was sitting on a verandah in a big house on the island of Trinidad, drink in hand, chattering away. The four of us there were looking up, of course, as birders always do look up.

Suddenly, we fell all silent together as in the hush of a church. Four Swallow-Tailed Kites were passing directly overhead, not quite low enough to kiss the roof of the big house at our back, but perhaps low enough to scout it for basking lizards.

And once there were three of us on a drive somewhere on a lonely road in South America. I cannot say more about the location, for there is more to the story. As there is always more to the story.

The important thing is this: We came upon a sky-dance of Swallow-tailed Kites. Several of them exchanged green branches in mid-air with each other.

Of course, we pulled over, parked a while, to study this courtship dance/bonding display. There's a colony nearby. We knew, and so after a time, we got back in the car.

And then we found it. Attentive pairs in the nest. Others dancing in the sky. A bold young bird about to fledge.

An afternoon well-lost to beauty.

If I have inspired you to keep an eye open for Swallow-tailed Kites, gently tap that <3 button. Tips always accepted with my thanks.

Nature
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About the Creator

Amethyst Qu

Seeker, traveler, birder, crystal collector, photographer. I sometimes visit the mysterious side of life. Author of "The Moldavite Message" and "Crystal Magick, Meditation, and Manifestation."

https://linktr.ee/amethystqu

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