Kites and shorebirds counting

This week has been hot, but the birds are not stopped by the heat. There is a family of Mississippi Kites flying around the south end of St. Simons Island. They rested in my neighbor's tree two days ago. There were six sitting in the tree and one flying around.

Here they are. 

Yesterday, there were five of them near the St. Simons Elementary School. Today, when I was running a survey, I found 3 Mississippi Kites flying over Massengale Park. They are chowing down on the abundance of dragonflies. Anyone know dragonflies? They are most orange-red about two and a half inches long. They are everywhere around the island.

Yesterday, was the day we did our International Shorebird Survey. I invited Mary Jo Townsend and Abby Sterling along to help.  Abby and I are setting up a route to begin a disturbance survey.  It will have six stops from Massengale Park to Gould's Inlet. More to come on that survey.

in photo left to right Bob Sattelmeyer, Abby Sterling, and Mary Jo Townsend on Coast Guard Beach St. Simons Island, Georgia