Thursday, April 12, 2007

White-tailed Kites near nest


This evening I spent the last hour before sunset watching the pair of White-tailed Kites that are nesting near McMinnville. About 10 minutes after I arrived, the female left the nest to meet the male who arrived carrying her dinner in the form of a large vole. After handing it off to her in flight, he perched directly above the nest and kept watch while she landed on a lower perch and devoured the vole in bite-sized pieces. Then she flew up to a vantage point on the tip of a nearby tree, and the male disappeared. About 50 minutes later, as it was getting dark, she finished her preening, dropped down out of my sight near the small creek for about two minutes, and then returned to her high perch. She stayed there for only about five minutes, and then flew to the nest and appeared to settle in for the night.

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