Three Swallow-tailed Kites over City Park

At 9:50 this morning, as I was driving up Wisner along City Park, I was surprised and delighted to see three Swallow-tailed Kites together circling over the road.  They were just north of Filmore.  One of them seemed low enough that it might have just taken off from a perch in the vicinity.  I pulled over on the shoulder, and followed one in my binoculars for a few minutes while it drifted eastward across Bayou St. John and over Gentilly.

This species winters in South America, and returns to the USA after crossing the Gulf of Mexico.  It nests on our North Shore, but only occurs on the South Shore as a passage migrant- March and April are by far the most likely times to see them south of Lake Pontchartrain.  

Just up the road, thirty or so Chimney Swifts were foraging over the grass- also recently returned from the tropics.

Good birding,

Peter