Date: June 12, 2004 Time: Aprox. 9:15 AM County: Ramsey Location: About .5 miles east of White Bear Avenue on Co. Rd. C near the soccer fields (which are on the north side of Co. Rd. C). Observer: Pat Clements Equipment: Naked Eye Distance: As close as 100 yard to 150 yards.
Sorry for the delay as we just got home from the tournament. Observation: I was looking up from the game and looking south. I saw a white looking bird flying north. I observed the bird for about 6 minutes. At first I thought it was a gull of some kind. As the bird got closer I could see wings that looked very Tern like (sharp and somewhat turned back). The wing beats were fairly slow - then the bird looked like it did a summersault in mid-air. As it moved closer I could see what it was really doing - It was hovering. It did this quite a few times as it neared our location. At it's closest I could see it had a white face, a somewhat dark elongated looking eye, light gray back and upper wings and mostly white looking from below with darker looking wing patches. It would occasionally hold it's wings in a high V like Rock Doves sometimes do. When it would hover, it would fan it's tail quickly out while beating it's wings to stall it mid-air. I am guessing it was grabbing insects, as there were a lot of large dragonflys about. This was due the marsh accross the north-side of Co. Rd. C and also one behind our fields on the north-side of the soccer fields. Size wise I would say that it was close to the size of a Common Tern. I have seen a numbrer of White-tailed Kites on birding trips to the Rio Grande River area of Texas, and as best I could tell with out the use of binoculars - this is what this bird looked like. I have scoured my field guides and cannot find another bird that looks like, or behaves like, this bird did. The bird finally moved off to the east and I lost it from sight. Thanks... Pat Clements
