Hi all, Exciting news! An active nest of Mississippi Kites has been discovered in northern Hocking County. An alert homeowner had tipped me to these birds a few weeks back, then followed up later with some photos, one of which showed two adults in the same tree. She continued to monitor them when possible, and called early yesterday morning to report that a new bird - heavily striped below - had appeared on the scene. By now it was clear that there was an active nest nearby. I could not make it down to the site due to a meeting, but Tim Daniel, photographer for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, was able to make the trip and Tim deserves major congratulations for finding the actual nest - the first nest of a Mississippi Kite discovered in Ohio. We never could find the nest at the Brass Ring Golf Course in southern Hocking County even though the birds there obviously nested locally. As of right now, it appears that the adult kites are still feeding one youngster in the nest, although the nest is high enough off the ground and concealed well enough that the contents can't be seen. But when adult kites are flying to the nest with annual cicadas and stuffing them into something, you can pretty well be sure there is a kitelet in there gobbling them up. And the other youngster is already out and free-flying. Mississippi Kites normally have two eggs per clutch. Tim took an absolutely incredible series of photos of both the juvenile and the adults, including a stunner of one of the adults eating a cicada wile on the wing. I'll post some of these to my blog later tonight: http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/ It appears that Mississippi Kites are colonizing the Hocking River Valley and environs. The Brass Ring Golf Course pair in southern Hocking County came to light in 2007 (Ohio's first breeding record), and the following year a pair was noted in nearby Athens County, although nesting wasn't confirmed. Now we have this pair in northern Hocking County. One has to wonder how many others might be out there, and hopefully we can look forward to seeing even more future expansion of this beautiful raptor. The reason for not getting the word out earlier is that the kite nest is located in Hide-A-Way-Hills, a private resort that is gated. One cannot just wander in; permission from a landowner is required and the guard at the gate must have an authorized name for entry. We really want to help provide an opportunity for interested parties to see these birds, and the landowner has very graciously helped to work out a plan for doing so. She lives in Columbus and is only at Hide-A-Way-Hills on occasion, but will be there this Saturday morning, August 21st. So, if you are able to make the trip between 9 am and noon, we will make sure that you are provided access. If you would like to visit the kites, please e-mail me your name so that we can provide it to the gatehouse. I'll send interested parties directions as well. I'd need to know if you would like to go by 5 pm tomorrow, as it won't be possible to turn in any names after that. Sorry for the short notice on this one, but circumstances just didn't allow for other options. Jim Jim McCormac Ohio Division of Wildlife 2045 Morse Rd., G-2 Columbus, OH 43229 614-265-6440 ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]