As noted before, the swallow-tailed kite we radio tagged went to roost off
toward lake Houston and was eaten by a great horned owl about a week after
we caught him. This is the first time ever an adult with a radio was eaten.
The owls do eat babies in the nest often and they are the main predator of
the kites.
If you go to
http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/?project_id=665
you can follow the tagged kites.
The texas radio was recovered and put on a kite from Louisiana named
Lacombe.
So if you click on Lacombe you can follow that kite as it goes south.
Once he gets going, you have an option of 3 maps. Full size shows the
journeys over the years. Zoom maps shows recent travels. And the animated
map shows where the kite was over the time it had the radio. Note the date
shows as the time advances on the map.
Strong River is the other bird from this season. Pearl River has been over
the Smith Point tower and Corpus Christi in the past. Note that our kites
go to southern brazil leaping leaping over southern birds that go a shorter
distance.
Tracking shows that even good fliers like swallow-tailed kites have grave
problems over the gulf when they hit a strong norther. One bird spent a
couple of days over the water before retreating to southern Chiapas for a
couple weeks of R&R before trying again; this time he went around the coast
and then east.
The real time tracking will really help watch for the two birds at our hawk
watch sites or allow one to make a little side trip to see them. But even
with a big bird that can be hard. I tried once with a peregrine coming
north from Chile and he went by within a mile or so but I had no glimpse.
--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
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