North Central Illinois Ornithological Society

The young kite seen in the nest last Friday was found on the ground yesterday morning by Chicago birders. It may have fallen out as long ago as Saturday. It cannot fly yet. In fact, it has a hard time perching on thinner branches, and occasionally tips over and ends hanging upside down, wings akimbo.

Late yesterday afternoon, it somehow crossed a lawn, a street, and another lawn, and climbed into a tall dense bush. Today it has worked its way up to the top of the bush, and from there to a small tree. It appears to be healthy and strong, and having survived this long on or near the ground, we trust it will soon be flying and hunting on its own.

This morning between 6:20 and 6:45, I counted 5 kites perched in the Bloom School neighborhood. The subadult perched for 2½ hours in the big tree near Buckingham and Pleasant View. Other raptors seen nearby in the last 4 days are Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, Turkey Vulture, and today around noon, a Sharp-shinned Hawk soaring with three Mississippi Kites.

The Carolina Wren is singing regularly around the intersections of Buckingham with Roncevalles and Scottswood.

Click on the pictures below to see them full size.

Fledgling kite today

Struggling to stay upright

Being fed by adult male

Now two young Mississippi Kites have been seen. A flying juvenile was seen at Bloom School yesterday at 9 AM by Fran Morel of Evanston. We believe this to be the product of a nesting pair from the southern “hot spot” area marked on my map at the link given in the previous post. A second juvenile from the northern “hot spot” was found this morning.

There is a Carolina Wren at the red house across the street from 3306 Buckingham.

Mississippi Kites continue to be sighted in Rockford, but no young have yet been seen. For a graphic view of their activity to date, see the map at http://tinyurl.com/Rockford-MIKIs. Zoom in and out for a more complete picture.

This morning, for several hours, I watched several kites in the Bloom School neighborhood. (And at 2:45 this afternoon, there were 3 perched there, one over the school parking lot’s bike stand.) Before today, the kite count has been 3 adult males and one adult female, all being seen together a couple of times. Today, I saw a year-old female bird perched, which brings the count to 5 separate individuals. Later I saw another female flying, which differed from the two females I saw perched together. That would be a sixth individual.

Near that neighborhood, a Carolina Wren was singing this morning at 1907 Kings Highway.

But maybe my best sighting was early this afternoon when I was at my home in Shaw Woods. I looked out the window and next to my birdbath I saw a mink carrying a chipmunk it had caught. As it ran off with it, a Cooper’s Hawk swooped at it.

At this link there is a map showing some recent sightings, as well as significant occurrences in 2008 and 2009. In order to get a better idea of whether we have an emerging colony of kites here in Rockford, it would be helpful if we gathered as many kite sighting reports as possible. You can help by reporting your kite sighting details. If you are not comfortable posting on this site, or adding a comment, you can call one of the following numbers. (If you reach an answering machine, please leave the details, your name, and a way of reaching you in case there are questions.) The numbers are for reports, not for obtaining information on where to find kites. The above-mentioned map should suffice for that.

Thanks for your help.

815-877-6229
815-968-4732