One Mississippi, Two Mississippi...

Each summer, we enjoy seeing and hearing the Mississippi Kites as they nest in our neighborhood. So when we saw kites hanging around the garden plot, we were glad to see them. Their coloring is striking, in a subtle kind of way, if that makes any sense. I took these shots from across a field, so they are not sharp but definitely the best I have to date of these birds.

They appear to glide so effortlessly; such graceful birds they are. We hear the young kites high in trees, begging for feeding with a clear, "Feed me! Feed me!" We welcome them to the destructive insects that they consume, especially grasshoppers. It is the cicadas that can be heard for quite a distance complaining as they are carried off in a beak.