Snippets of Late Summer
By the time I returned from Indonesia it was August, which is sort of the nadir of the birding months in the DC area. It's hot, sticky, and uncomfortable, migration has fully completed, and even the few birds with low enough standards to stick around to breed are done singing and busy feeding their chicks. We still forced ourselves outside though, even if it was slim pickings bird-wise. One of the unexpected highlights was a pair of Mississippi Kites that showed up in a random neighborhood of DC and started making a nest. It was a great find by a local teen birder, and I was happy to see that they were still around by the time I got back to the country. I'd only seen Mississippi Kites a few times before and never in DC, so even on an uncomfortably hot and sunny morning it was well worth the twitch. I made a quick stop by my local patch at 4 Mile Run and was happy to see a couple Wood Ducks in with the usual mallards, and Nikki and I went to Kenilworth Park with the usual bird...