After receiving 7.5 inches of rain from Wednesday evening through Friday
morning, my yard had to be mowed today. So, despite a temperature of 94 and
heat index of 103, I jumped on the mower after work today and started sweating.
While mowing the front yard, I noticed a group of vultures overhead...guess
they were waiting for me to pass out. I also noticed two smaller birds in the
group so I stopped the mower (in the shade), set the parking brake and began
watching. Within a minute, the smaller birds circled low enough and at the
right angle for me to see the pointed wings and forked tail. With sky as the
background, I only saw silhouettes, but shape was enough to add
Swallow-tailed Kite to my yard list. I returned to mowing, watching overhead
occasionally. The kites stayed around several minutes and were in the company
of 8 Turkey and 4 Black Vultures. By the time I finished mowing, everyone was
gone. Mowing in extreme heat...terrible. Adding Swallow-tailed Kite to my yard
list...worth every drop of sweat! This is the 5th record for The Shoals and 3rd
in the past 2 weeks.
Damien SimbeckKillen AL
Sent from my smart phone. You can teach an old dog new tricks.
