Swallow-tailed kites for Friday Skywatch

My whole post is a Skywatch today. Click on the swallow-tailed hawk at the right to see other Friday Skywatch pictures.

Last Tuesday we went to a newly opened Audubon property called Silver Bluff. It's near Aiken, SC, where our middle son lives. He met us there and we had a nice hike. Not a lot to take pictures of but the day wasn't over. On the way home we went to some fields near Allendale, SC, where someone had reported seeing a lot of swallow-tailed kites. There is concern about their declining numbers.

Here are some of the waaaay too many pictures I took in a light rain. The kites swoop around very fast, not flapping their wings very much, catching insects with their feet and putting them into their beaks while flying. They literally eat on the fly. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but they are a little larger than a red-tailed hawk, but more streamlined.

This shows the kite from the top--not a view one often sees. It just happened to bank sharply as it swooped by.

This shows their striking color better than the shots against the gray sky.

Here you can see it putting an insect into it's beak. Dragonflies and June bugs are among their favorites. Click this larger to see better detail of this neat trick.