Swallow-Tailed Kites
Raptors in the backyard.
Over the July 4th weekend my husband dug out the inflatable kiddie pool we’ve had for a few years now. He then aired it up and filled it with water for our 11 year old son to splash around in throughout the weekend. During the late spring and summer of 2020 I spent a lot of time in the backyard with my son who was then 5 years old, watching him swim around in a different inflatable pool (that one developed holes eventually) as I attempted to work on my laptop at the picnic table a few dozen feet away. Of course, I spent time in the pool myself that summer, and the next. Thinking back, I realize just how difficult March 2020 to April-ish 2021 really was, not just on me of course, but on everyone around the world. Millions of people were dying or sick and many of those who weren’t were struggling in a variety of other ways from social isolation to economic reasons and beyond. I look back on that time and see how much we were all trying to cobble the pre-COVID life together, to keep things functioning as if a pandemic wasn’t happening, because at the end of the day we were being told Capitalism Must Keep Going.
Imagine if we’d all been able to work slightly less, to release deadlines from our tight grasp, even just a little. So many of us were suddenly continuing to attempt to work 40+ hours a week while also pulling double duty full-time as parents or as adult caregivers, and later as teachers, too, when kids began returning to school/online learning. Add all of this into the mix and then throw being sick from COVID or any other illness on top of that and it shows just how painful and difficult it was to deal with it all. Honestly, it was far more traumatic than I think the world wants to let on.
On that July 4th weekend, my son spent time playing in the pool while I worked on removing taro on our portion of lake shoreline while listening to an audiobook. The area I was working in is mostly shaded but that didn’t stop the sweat from pouring down my face. I was a muddy, filthy, sweat-drenched mess by the time I was done for the day in the late afternoon. My son had already been inside cooling off for a few hours, his first round of splashing over and done with. But that water was beckoning me to climb inside and pretend I was in a much deeper pool within view of a beach.
I rinsed off at the hose as best as I could, dried off with another towel, and went inside to change into my bathing suit and drag the kiddo back outside to play and hangout with me for a bit. His interest in being in the pool a second time went by rather quickly but I found myself wanting to soak longer so I went inside and grabbed some magazines from the pile of ‘zines I never seem to read because I can’t sit down long enough to flip through them. After I had seen enough of a back issue of Texas Highways I put it down and stared across the yard as the late afternoon sunlight filtered across our weeping bald cypress on the north end of the lake shoreline. This is when I took that trip down COVID memory lane.
Then I looked up.
At first I thought I was watching vultures swirling on the thermals high above but as the birds turned I saw the telltale signs of a forked tail. Swallow-tailed kites! We typically see them on our lake every year but not always during the same season or month. I first wrote about swallow-tailed kites on this newsletter in June 2023. I counted five or six birds alongside, yes, one or two vultures, on the thermals that afternoon in my view from the pool. I tried to recall the last time I’d seen one and the only occurrence coming to mind were two birds we saw west of B.A. Steinhagen Reservoir along US 190 in May 2025. Over a year ago!
I continued watching until the sun became too obnoxious to deal with and my neck hurt from looking up. I forgot about them for a few days until I was out on our recently rebuilt dock one evening and counted 9 swallow-tailed kites flying above the lake. I ran inside to grab my camera and put on my long lens and then proceeded to sit back on the dock for at least half an hour or more as they flew around the lake and then out of sight and back again. I kept hoping they would dip a little closer to me and skim the water but that was not in their plans. Entertain the lady with the camera? I think not.
Eventually they started flying lower, closer to the top of the pine tree canopy and over toward my house. I was going to pack it up and go back inside but when I got to the other side of the pine trees and into an open area between the trees and my house I noticed they were all flying rather low in circles around my house. Much, much lower than they had been on the lake.
I took a few photos of them zooming across, above the backyard, but then moved to the front yard as they had drifted that direction. There was a scuffle in the trees with a couple of the birds for a minute as two attempted to land—that excited me as it meant I might get better photos. The scuffle ended as quickly as it started and the birds flew off. It was a minute or so later that I realized there was a kite still in the tree and the shadows had hidden it from view. I looked through my camera and knew exactly what the scuffle was about it—an attempt to steal this bird’s dinner!
My husband and I watched for maybe 10 minutes or so as this bird ripped its catch into pieces and dined. I was never able to completely tell what it was devouring but when I zoomed in on one of the photos I had taken we thought it was likely to be a baby bird snatched from a nest nearby.
The kite was sitting in a pine tree that is just out our back door, near our compost piles and potting bench, but the tree soars above our house and we can easily see it from the front yard. The angle of the limb where the bird was sitting was best viewed from our position in the front yard. We do have a garden path that runs along the south side of our house, from the front yard to the back, and I slowly took a step or two to get closer. The bird was never fazed and I kept taking photos until it appeared dinner was over.
We don’t usually see the swallow-tailed kites in action this close in our yard, though we do tend to have seasonal fluctuations of other raptor and bird activity on the lake. For what seemed like most of June we had a hawk living and hunting in our yard. I frequently saw it perched on the posts of our fenced in vegetable garden when I would leave for work in the morning. One evening after my husband had mowed the lawn, it followed behind, foraging in the grass for insects that had met their demise in the blades of the mower. Bald eagles come through in late winter and early spring and will perch on our trees closer to the lake or, most typically, across the lake. We see the ones in our yard while we are inside and from our dining room window. In some years, roseate spoonbills will wade in the upper, more vegetated areas of the lake. Even more rare are the wood storks that will land for a few minutes and then take off before I can run back out with my camera for good photos!
Even with all that is going on in the world, it is always good to get back to the basics. The nature watching, the sitting and noticing. Disconnecting and listening to the world around you. Understanding that what you have now is not what used to exist—there were more insects and birds and other wildlife 10, 20, 30, 100 years ago than there are today. And what we have now may not exist in the future.
The swallow-tailed kites disappeared for a few days, or maybe I was too busy with life to notice if they were still flying around, but they popped back up earlier this week. I’m not sure if they are the same individuals or not as migration back to South America should already be beginning to get underway.
And it may be another year before I see them again.
How lucky you are to see them so close!
What great story, Misti! Here's to swallow-tailed kites and all the beauty they bring into the world!