Swallow-tailed Kite at Lighthouse Point
I spent a couple hours this morning at Lighthouse Point in New Haven on a light NW breeze in hopes of turning up some diurnal migrants, such as raptors and swallows. At this time of year, the big prize would be a reorienting Swallow-tailed Kite. These master areialists are prone to drifting with the wind, and northbound birds in spring occasionally overshoot their southern breeding grounds and end up in New England, especially on a tailwind from the south. Over the years a bit of a pattern has emerged: kites that have overshot their migration have been seen reorienting back southward along the coast when the wind comes from the north. This is the same sort of process that brings Cave Swallows to our coast in the late autumn. This has been recorded with Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites a few times in CT in recent memory, but a better observed pattern comes from Cape May, NJ, where up to 5 individual STKIs have been recorded on a single spring day with NW winds. As luck would have it...