Got a few things to update you on before we get to today’s post, which happens to be a continuation of a recent feature. For starters, if you have spent any time at all here at Intrigued, you know about our annual Haunted Trail event. The all consuming, year round prep and exhausting build for the two night event held in late September. Our partner in haunt, Paul, has finished making this year’s video recap. I wanted to share that link in case you would like a sampling of how the trail turned out this year. Note, if the embedded link below does not work for you, try going directly to it using this link – https://youtu.be/wnZ5veDpNcA?si=1TM4lSygwhsnYMl_
Amazing how well the finished trail looks knowing the complete chaos leading up to the opening. A huge thank you again to everyone that helps us put this event on.
The other update is on the running front. The recent 50 mile ultra race hit me and hit me hard. I finally got the race recap up on the mothership if anyone is interested in reading about all the mishaps that when on during that torturefest (link here). I recommend not reading that if you are thinking about taking up long distance trail running ha. I’ve spent a solid two weeks trying to get back on my feet. The bad ankle I started the race with doesn’t seem to want to heal and the body is one big ache. Got fed up with the snail’s healing pace and went for a 7 mile run today. Lungs felt great, but the legs were a mess. Worst of all, now the ankle doesn’t even want to hold my weight – damn you weak-assed body parts – you shall suck it up and get in line or I’m gonna keep beating you until you change your attitude.
With those updates out of the way, I can finally get to today’s featured feathered friend (about time Bri!).
Look familiar? Hit the jump for the second part of our encounter with the Snail Kites during our 2023 April visit to Florida.
If you missed the first post on these federally endangered birds, you can get caught up here. I think I might have mentioned to several of you in the comments that this second part was in the queue and there would be some additional background provided on some of the specimens that were photographed.
Normally in the field I am doing everything I can to keep The Beast on target when it comes to birds in flight. I absolutely love my rig, but it is on the heavy side due to the 200-400 glass with end to end f4 – lots of heavy inner glass to get that light freedom. I also do not tend to “chimp” at the LCD panel on the back of the camera in favor of not missing shots. The end result is I do not tend to notice federal bands until back in the digital darkroom. In this particular case, I thought I had seen some glinting from the legs on a few of them, but wasn’t sure until I started processing them.
Sure enough, several of the specimens were sporting both federal (sliver metal) and colored metal bands. The federal bands are quite difficult to get a read on as there isn’t much contrast in the numbering and they tend to extend all the way around the band. Without multiple angles, you will be missing a lot of digits. Instead, I focus on the color bands which are usually shorter and generally have good luck identifying the bird on the banding site with those numbers/letters and the specific color. Let’s take a look at our first celebrity.
This young fella or lady was hunting the open waters quite regularly. It took up a significant amount of space on the digital card – many of which immediately hit the circular file thanks to bad execution. In the mix, I did manage to get some decent shots and from those was able to zoom in and pick off the band ID – this one was given the tag of E56.
Submitted that to the banding site and received the following information back. Female and immature Snail Kites are a rich brown with white highlights. In this case, I am not sure if it is a female or if 9 months still puts it in the juvenile stage and thus it could be a male. Per the cert, it was banded on 5/26/2022 in the nest. What became a consistent theme is they did not record the sex.
Continuing on with the next banded specimen. There are actually a number of shots of this particular Snail Kite as well. It was being shy with revealing its jewelry and wasn’t until many shots in did I notice the band. Here it is cleverly obstructing my view to the legs.
Eventually The Beast managed to get a shot which confirmed it. Problem was it was keeping its distance from the bank I was standing on making it difficult to even get the condensed number.
Then I got lucky. Our specimen decided to take a rest and landed in a bramble directly across from me. Can’t hide it anymore!
The shot above shows you how hard it is to read those federal silver bands. Guessing those are really for the ones they have in hand. Taking a closer look, our specimen has been given the N21 designation.
As before, submitted this new specimen and sure enough, received a certificate of appreciation back. He/She was even younger than the last one. Also banded in 2022, but this one was banded in the nest on 7/26 – 2 months younger to the day. Undetermined sex, so again, not sure if a female or potentially a juvi male.
We are not done yet! This next specimen I can confirm is an adult male. Believe this is the first breeding male in either post, which means you get your first look at their unique coloring. Notice the solid gray coloring throughout the body and wings with a wider tail band. You will also notice the pink/red base of the bill that is absent from the females and juveniles.
Also notice the redder legs compared to the other specimens above. I just think these males are super cool and even look deadlier with those brightly decorated hooks and toes. Let’s have another in-flight look.
I did not get very many shots of this male at all. Beyond a couple of similar shots this is about all there is. Luckily, just enough to see the band. This one was more of a silver (not the federal band) and they swapped the position of the letter and the number.
As you would expect, this specimen is significantly older than the other two. 12E was banded in the nest way back in May 2015 making him a little less than 8 years old. No need to question the sex, it is clearly male.
There is one more for you. This one was clearly proud of its jewelry as most of the in-flight shots have it proudly on display. I happen to really like this shot as you are not going to get a cleaner look at the undersides of these females/juveniles.
Do some digital zooming and you will notice this specimen goes by D87 – back to the blue band. Could it be that all the ones with the blue band were born around the same time?
Adding in this shot of the D87 just because it posed so nice for me among the bramble and Spanish moss. Ironically, one of the few times it was hiding the band.
It did flip around to confirm it was the same bird, this time the band was much easier to read.
Mystery solved, the last specimen sporting a blue band was also born around the same time as the first two (also with blue bands). This one is the youngest of the bunch having been banded in the nest on 8/2/22. Juvi male or female, your guess is as good as mine at this point.
One thing was very evident – the parents taught their offspring well. They were plucking the Apple Snails right out of the water like seasoned pros. They should all do well as long as the food supply remains stable. Speaking of which, I have not heard anything regarding Paynes and the recent hurricanes that plowed through the region. As with all the impacted residents, we extend our best wishes to all during those lethal weather related events. Decided to throw in another decent shot of these incredible birds…
…because I am going to leave you with a shot that I just missed. A microsecond earlier and I would have had the exact pluck and, more importantly, been able to get both the wings in the frame giving me a new addition for the wall.
Oh well, you lose some, you win some. Just like races, sometimes you are the shoe and other times the dirt.
Take care everyone, time for me to go have some very adult words with my ankle – may have to put earmuffs on the dogs to protect their fragile ears.
Life Intrigued 