20 September 07
White-tailed Kite
There’s a kite that’s been hanging around the eucalyptus trees west of the bridge over Putah Creek at lunchtime. (I think it might be the same bird Richard took a photo of when he came over for dinner; the east side is its preferred afternoon/evening perch.) I headed over there today. The sky was the same color as the bird, a storm having come through yesterday and this morning.
The kite fanned its tail a lot as it called: four white tail feathers each side, blackish-gray in the center. I’ve never noticed this before. And Numenius and I spent a winter on a kite study in Santa Barbara in 1997 or thereabouts….
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