{"id":129501,"date":"2024-06-15T02:58:18","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T07:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=129501"},"modified":"2024-06-14T19:17:53","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T00:17:53","slug":"mississippi-kite-photos-from-tishomingo-nwr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/06\/15\/mississippi-kite-photos-from-tishomingo-nwr\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Kite Photos From Tishomingo NWR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I finally took some Mississippi Kite photos that I’m happy with during a trip to Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a>. They are such striking raptors.<\/p>\n

\"MississippiMississippi Kite in a willow tree \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/640, ISO 500, +1.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier in the morning, when the light wasn’t great, I found a kite in this same general area. The kite was spitting up a pellet of undigested food particles. I was disappointed I didn’t get better photos of the kite while it was doing that.<\/p>\n

Later in the morning, I decided to head back to the area to see if I could find the Mississippi Kite, and I found two of them.<\/p>\n

Both of the photos in this post are of the same kite on two different perches. The photo above was part of the first series I took while the kite was in a willow.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Mississippi Kite in Oklahoma \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/640, ISO 500, +1.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The kite took off after prey, and when it came back, it landed on this dead tree. These kites weren’t far away from the Mississippi Kite nest I found on my second trip to this refuge; they may even be the pair that built the nest. By now, their chicks should have hatched.<\/p>\n

Maybe the pair of kites I saw yesterday were out gathering food for their young.<\/p>\n

These kites are extremely graceful in flight; it is a joy to watch them fly.<\/p>\n

The light gray and dark plumage of Mississippi Kites makes them stand out in the bottomland forests where I find them at the refuge, or against a bright blue sky anywhere else. And those red eyes? Wow, they look intense!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

I will be adding more Mississippi Kite photos to their gallery here<\/span><\/a> as I take them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I finally took some Mississippi Kite photos that I’m happy with during a trip to Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge. They are such striking raptors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":129486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,15144,15205,13973,15021],"tags":[4004,2663,13985,13984,6577,4169,15210,15212,15213,15211,153,4018,165,4427,4076,6107],"class_list":["post-129501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-johnston-county","category-mississippi-kites","category-oklahoma","category-tishomingo-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-bottomland-hardwood-forests","tag-bottomlands","tag-branches","tag-hawks","tag-ictinia-mississippiensis","tag-kite","tag-kites","tag-mississippi-kite","tag-raptors","tag-sky","tag-spring","tag-tree","tag-trees","tag-willow"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t