Thursday, April 10 and Friday, April 11

Thursday evening was pretty exciting for me. I got home from the office and went to change. I looked out of our bedroom window and saw hundreds of Mississippi Kites flying in a kettle. They flew around and finally went out of sight. I think it was the same group that showed up four more times. If it wasn't the same group, we had well over 300 Mississippi Kites migrate over our house on Thursday. That was a lot of fun to watch! I also saw my first Chimney Swift of the year.

I got out early on Friday morning. It was warm, humid and a decent south wind was blowing. The skies were threatening rain, although we got just a light shower during the day. One of the first things I noticed was the mosquito larvae had completed their cycle to become adults. They were really bad! Fortunately I had a can of Off! with me.

I wasn't expecting much with the south wind blowing. I did get a couple of new birds for the property year. I found a Black-and-white Warbler foraging in a tree. A Philadelphia Vireo was deeper in the woods. An Eastern Wood-Pewee was showing off his flycatching skills not too far away from the vireo. He would sit on a dead branch and fly off, catch and insect and fly back. One of the more exciting birds I saw flew over while I was mowing. I had just turned and started heading north and saw the Swallow-tailed Kite flying toward me. He was eating something on the wing. I couldn't tell what it was. He was flying maybe 100 ft. off the ground. After he finished eating, he started gaining altitude until he was probably 1/4 mile high and flew off to the north. He stayed around for about 10 minutes. That was a lot of fun to see him again this year.

I did get to witness some avian drama on Friday. I made my way over to the new pond to see what was going on with the Red-bellied Woodpecker nest that I watched them excavate. As I got closer, I saw the male woodpecker diving at the tree and calling. I thought that was a little uncharacteristic of him. As I got closer, I could see what he was so upset about. A 4' long rat snake was climbing the tree. The nest is probably 10' to 12' from the top of the tree. The snake climbed to the top, inspected an old nest hole, and turned around to head down the tree. I kept hoping he wouldn't find the woodpecker nest, but he found the hole, stuck his head in and then went in for a meal. I think there were just eggs in there at the time because I don't think they would have had time to lay their eggs and have them hatch yet. But, these woodpeckers will have to start over if they want to have a successful breeding season this year. It's a tough life being a bird.

Species seen on April 11 (37 species): Red-winged Blackbird, Eastern Bluebird, Indigo Bunting, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee, Eurasian Collared Dove, Mourning Dove, Cattle Egret, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Little Blue Heron, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, White Ibis, Blue Jay, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Mississippi Kite, Swallow-tailed Kite, Purple Martin, Northern Mockingbird, Northern Parula, Eastern Wood Pewee, White-throated Sparrow, Barn Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Chimney Swift, Brown Thrasher, Tufted Titmouse, Philadelphia Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Turkey Vulture, Black-and-white Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, Cedar Waxwing, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Carolina Wren