Dear Bruce,

I am the hotline operator in question. I did not "brush off" the
sighting but did not have time myself to attempt to confirm it, though I
passed the word via the hotline and privately to others that if they got
the chance they should check it out. It is not that obvious a contrast
in many cases. I intend no impugning of your abilities but have been
fooled myself on occasion and know of others who have been. Male
harriers are not bulky but quite graceful. Also, since I have been
avidly birding in King County for the last 24 years and have never seen
one nor have many other active local birders I believe there is reason to
be cautious with such reports. Kites, in my experience, have tended to
be rather persistent in their attachment to place in Washington State
and it should be likely that one (or a pair) may soon take up residence.
The Duvall location seems like a good place for them, but Bellevue does
not, nor residential Seattle, another recent location from which they
have been reported by reliable observers. All I can say is that we treat
observations of birds beyond their known range with appropriate
scepticism, a scepticism which we extend to all, including ourselves and
our friends. I hope you treat our scepticism in that light.

Yours,

Gene Hunn (ex-hotline coordinator & member Washington Ornithological
Society bird records review committee: hunn at u.washington.edu)

On Tue, 22 Aug 1995, Helmboldt, Bruce wrote:

> My wife and I have seen White-tailed kites several times on our
> various birding excursions, but quite recently in southern Arizona and
> in the Sacramento Valley of California. (I have also been a volunteer
> bird bander, so am not a total loss at identification.) We saw a pair
> of White-tailed kites about 1 mile south of Duvall, WA, along the
> Snohomish river this spring (April?), and called the Washington Rare
> Bird Alert hot-line, but I later got a message on my answering machine
> dismissing our hawks as Northern harriers. We did not see those birds
> again. Later into summer, early June I'd guess, my wife saw a single
> White-tailed kite on highway 520 west of the I-405 interchange. She
> saw this bird three days in a row, but having been brushed off by the
> hot-line operator (and not knowing about the Internet or Tweeters yet)
> we have let the kites slide (is this mixing a metaphor? Do kites
> slide?). We both know very well the difference between a (bulky, our
> word) harrier and a (graceful, almost falcon-like) kite. We have
> added the kites to our Washington state list with confidence.
>
> Bruce Helmboldt
> bhelmboldt at seaao.dcmdw.dla.mil
> Duvall, WA
>