In birding, sometimes the story surrounding a good sighting is almost more priceless than the actual bird. Please allow my indulgence here as I think you might agree that today's serendipitous experience in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery falls into that category.
The story truly begins on April 14th when a birder named Jennifer Keplar spotted, then photographed a Swallow-tailed Kite over Prospect Park's Lullwater. Mind you this was at a time when many of us fanatical birders were talking about and actively looking for one of these rarities. Also of note is that none of the regular Brooklyn birders knew this person as she apparently doesn't bird here very often. Flash forward to yesterday when the Brooklyn Bird Club posted on their Facebook page another photo by Jennifer. This time it was a Mississippi Kite that she photographed while birding in Green-Wood Cemetery yesterday! Today I slept relatively late after an amazing (and long) day of birding yesterday. After breakfast I was looking at Jennifer's photos online, comparing it to other images of immature Mississippi Kites while chatting on the phone with a birding buddy. At 8:30am I decided to bike over to Green-Wood Cemetery for some low-key birding, not even thinking about kites. At the Crescent Water I converged with birders Tom Preston and his wife and Paige Linden with her daughter and sister. We had exhausted the birds in that area and were mostly chit-chatting. I mentioned that I was thinking of heading up to Battle Hill for a little raptor watching. That comment lead to a brief discussion to Jennifer "the kite whisperer". None of us knew her and I mentioned that her profile photo shows her kissing a walrus, to which Tom replied, "I don't know about you, but if it takes kissing a walrus to see a kite in Brooklyn, I'll do it." We laughed and then I asked, "I wonder how she does it?" Tom said, "I guess she looks up a lot." My response was, "I suppose that's a good start", then looked up into the sky…directly at an immature Mississippi Kite overhead heading northeast just above the tree tops! When the kite disappeared behind the trees and we stopped laughing, high-fiving and hugging, I struggled to get out my phone to tweet, text and call as many people as possible. I still can't believe it happened and am really glad I don't have to kiss a walrus, although I suspect Tom may have been secretly looking foreword to it himself. If you go into Green-Wood Cemetery looking for this bird (or any raptors), you might want to position yourself on top of what I call "Reservoir Hill". It is the highest point in Brooklyn and a few hundred yards to the north of the Civil War Monument on Battle Hill. Good birding, Rob PS - Here is a link to Jennifer's photo of yesterday's bird: https://t.co/E1KGhxSDHN It looks as if her bird is molting tail feathers as they appear a little tattered. This morning's bird had a perfectly sharp and clean edged tail. http://citybirder.blogspot.com @thecitybirder -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
