After a lovely morning walk at Nisqually with Phil Kelley's group under
ever-brightening skies and with cooperative birds (I'll let Phil provide all
the highlights, as ever), I took a trip south to look for the Tenino
white-tailed hawks.



I stopped first at the 173rd Lane pull-out off Gibson Road. A quick scan
with the binocs turned up a promising-looking white speck at the top of a
conifer on the edge of the tree farm beyond the barns to the northeast.
Setting up the scope, I did indeed have a white-tailed kite - or to be more
specific, I had a fuzzy outline of something off-white and bird-shaped, with
a very white head and tail and a black line at the shoulder, shimmering in
the sun-induced haze. Once or twice it stretched out a wing or turned
around and preened its very white tail feathers, giving a nice demonstration
of the basic field marks.



I moved further north up Gibson Road, to the grassy double-gated entrance to
the tree farm, hoping for a closer look. Here I got the non-shimmery version
and a frontal view, though still needing a scope to appreciate it. The bird
I saw had a perfectly white head and a breast, not a hint of the juvenile
buffy, though Sibley states that feature disappears within weeks.



Many thanks to all those lovely people who provided detailed info on the
locations and forwarded helpful emails, after I was careless enough to lose
it all! So far my experiences with white-tailed kite seeking are 2 for 2
with instant finds, and that's all thanks to the denizens of this list.



Louise Rutter

Kirkland