Mississippi Kite and Heron In My Hood!

It's pretty neat (and convenient!) as a birder and nature photographer to have a regular "supply" of birds- large and small- frequent my neighborhood in North Charleston, S.C. We have lots of trees and several ponds so that's a plus, and it's generally pretty quite around here.

Just the other day, I first heard, then spotted, then went inside and grabbed my camera and monopod to try to photograph this bird, perching high atop a pine tree in a neighbor's backyard.

I figured it was a hawk, but have now learned, through a trusted social media site, that it is a juvenile Mississippi Kite.

Whatbird.com has a wonderful forum for bird identification.

The forum is free to join and use. You just have to sign up (username, password, etc.) and then you can post photos of birds you need help identifying, or help those in such need with your expertise.

This post today took much longer than normal for positive IDs to come in, but it was certainly worth the wait!

A few days after taking the above images, I had another opportunity to photograph a young Mississippi kite.

This one may be the same bird I photographed earlier. The location was different, but also a pine tree in my neighborhood.

I have no question as to this type of big bird.

This, of course, is the magnificent Great Blue Heron, which stood for a long time near the pond that is close to my backyard.

Great Blue was ready for a closeup.  This is a great bird to photograph because it will often be statue-still for great lengths of time.

I continue to see and hear Kites in my neighborhood, so will be alert to more photo ops with this magnificent creature!