The Swallow-tailed Kites continued hunting along the Nolichuchey River Saturday morning at Enon Church in Washington Co., TN. The location is in the Lamar Community along TN Rt. 107, at 5.1 miles west of TN Rt 81. Rt 81 can be accessed at Jonesborough, TN. The kites have been present for about a week at this site and a resident, who discovered them, showed us a digital photo of the bird yesterday which he had recently taken. According to Tom McNeil, who telephoned me today at 10:20 a.m., one of the birds was present as we spoke. He reported that other birders were present and that several had seen the kites about an hour earlier. The habitat is very large commercial agriculture fields with trees along the river. This is beautiful open and flat river bottom farm lands. The kites probably hunt extensively over these fields and have been seen feeding with flocks of swallows. They capture most of their prey on the wing and do not often perch. They fly to feed mostly low over the vegetation (including trees) early in the morning and in late afternoon when the insects are closer to the ground. During mid-day they often fly high in the sky. The Swallow-tailed Kite is a very rare raptor in Tennessee when it disperses north in fall from its southern breeding areas in the southern US costal states. It is rare anytime during the fall in the interior. They will eventually return to the south and migrate to South America where they winter in Brazil. This is the first record in the five-county area of Northeast Tennessee; there is at least one record in adjacent Greene Co. The Greene Co. bird was seen 12 Aug 2006 at Camp Creek Bald. It was observed by five local birders while they were participating in a butterfly count. The observers were Dianne Draper, Don Holt, Jim Holt, Larry and Jo Anne Routledge. The kite was seen flying in both Greene County, TN and in Madison County, NC. There is one other regional record of a bird which was in Buchanan County, Va. 10 May 2003. The bird was seen at Bull Mountain and was reported on Bristol Birds Net by David Raines of Breaks, Va. The bird circled twice about 200 feet above his head while flying eastward. Let's go birding...... Wallace Coffey Bristol, TN