Notes To My Mother

  Perhaps you have seen birds fluttering in one place in the air.   I have seen Northern Harriers do this as well as kestrels.  But most commonly it is the white-tailed Kite.  Three years ago there was a family of them in the Laguna De Santa Rosa and I had the privilege of witnessing their behaviors and capturing some of it with my camera.  This first picture (above) shows a juvenile in flight and an adult on the branch.  The juveniles are distinguishable by the brown markings.  This Kite family had three juveniles and one adult, perhaps two adults but I only saw one at any given time. Late one evening I saw this scene with the adult holding a gopher or vole while the three juveniles gathered. I was particularly taken by the orientation of the juvenile's body on the bottom left.  As it turned out I got several shots of juveniles in unusual positions.  On one occasion I photographed one of the juveniles doing a somersault in mid air (topi...

  These are the three juvenile white-tailed kites that lived in the Laguna De Santa Rosa in the summer of 2020.  They were often perched like this in the tops of trees near the waterway.  I tried locating their nest but was unsuccessful.  The juveniles can be distinguished from the adults by the brown markings on their upper bodies.  I find the juveniles to be particularly beautiful birds and they are a joy to watch and photograph.  They will often be in unusual positions in the air and it is hard to figure out if they are doing it on purpose or if it is part of their learning to fly process.  The pictures that follow capture one of the juveniles doing a somersault in the air.   First camera frame of the somersault, above. That is the adult on the left. As it continues to roll, notice the feather that has dislodged and is just to the right of the kite in this image.   Coming back upright, notice the feather's location at about 2 o'clock ...