Go Fly a Kite! Or See the Kite Fly....

Kingbird
Early Sunday morning, I headed out to the freeway and on to the interstate toward San Antonio [well, what OTHER way can I go on the interstate? If I headed in to old-town on the freeway, I'd end up driving into the GULF of Mexico...lol]. Anyway, about 10-15 miles up the highway I take the Sharpsburg exit to Pollywog Ponds. I had my camera and binoculars, but wasn't looking for any 'special' kind of bird, but hoping to see some on the two ponds and maybe, if lucky, along the Nueces river banks. Even by the early morning hour, it was hot and sultry. The air was very still, and the sun, streaming through the tree canopies was blinding white-hot already. Besides the few early birds singing: the kiskadees, the kingbirds, and doves, I was the only one on the path. At least I thought so. When I walk these wooded areas, I usually glance to the tree tops occasionally, looking for any sign of a hawk or birds of prey. And if you're a birder, you'll know just what I mean when you're out and about, that some of the high tree branches have a cluster of leaves drooping in the far distance, that can resemble a perched bird in the silhouette with no vision enhancing equipment. As I continued to walk in silence, I spotted just that...what I thought was a leaf cluster. The sun was behind it, dark shadow is all I saw. "It's just a group of leaves, Anni." I took a few more steps and thought, "It won't hurt to look through the binoculars."  Focusing on the object, and looking through the lenses, I realized it was THREE birds [yards away from where I stood on the trail].  And it so happened that those three birds were of a species I've been trying to locate and photograph them for over EIGHT YEARS with no luck.  Two adults and on another branch, the third one, what looked to be a fledged juvenile.  My heart was racing.  And since I stopped, the sweat  caused by the humidity began to pour off the top of my head onto my forehead and down into my eyes.  I was kinda miserable.  But after nearly a decade of searching for this bird species, even the persistent mosquitoes could've carried me off yonder and I wouldn't've  minded!  I wiped the perspiration off my face with my t-shirt and raised my camera.  I took one photo to show the distance from where I stood, and then I had to use the zoom lens.

Well, to make a long story shorter, I will say the lighting [with the sun BEHIND the birds] wasn't ideal for getting much detail on the birds' colors or features.  But, I got some identifying photos and maybe ONE good one that I can eventually use for my bird sanctuary frames I have hanging on my dining room walls.

I was so excited!!

By the way, the bird is very rare in South Texas, migrating through.  And it's called a Mississippi Kite! They are named "kites" because of their feeding habit...they are insectivores mainly and hunt on the wing...darting straight upward like a kite taking off in the wind..."kiting". I took a dozen photos or more to make sure I had ONE good one out of the effort -- will show more of them soon, on my birding blog.

The Mississippi Kites from the long Distance View
Pollywog Ponds
August 20, 2017
Near Calallen, Texas

Source: courtesy of Google Search & S. D. birding maps