Some rather premature red flags of autumn come from Ontario over the past couple of days: a red knot, a red phalarope, and a rufous hummingbird. As for swallow-tailed kites, here is some history. Most folks think of them as a Florida species, but their range was once much larger, easily encompassing Ohio. We have Ohio specimens in museums, including skins and archaeological remains, and plenty of anecdotal evidence they were once common in prairie country here. Modern texts, such as the BNA, seem a bit timid about representing its former range. The OSU Museum has an egg collected in New Hampshire. A hunter in Wisconsin wrote in 1854 of this species that it was “at one time quite numerous on our prairies, and quite annoying to us in grouse shooting." At one time it was regarded as common in Vermont, with wintering records, and a summer resident in S. Dakota, etc. It is hardly a difficult ID, so mis-identifications are unlikely. It should not be surprising that humans with guns were complicit in the shrinkage of its range; one commentator wrote "Direct human persecution of a conspicuous, notoriously unwary bird whose original numbers in many areas may have been relatively small seems the most likely cause of the rapid decline." These days, fall roosts of this species in Florida have been estimated to contain as much as 50% of the N. American population. Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ 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]