Home»Portola Valley Ranch, Windy Hill, Etc.»2/26/2019 Rainbow and More Over the Frog Pond»2/26/2019 White-tailed Kite Hunts Voles and Fends Off Crows (Sequences)

The Kite hovers in the sky, head motionless in space, its wings beating -- gaze fixed on the swampy grassland below, looking for movement: a Vole?

The English word "kite" was first applied to a bird like this -- only later to the paper-and-stick, string-tethered windcatcher that hovers and flaps in the sky, like this Kite.

I saw no successful hunt this morning. But the beauty and joy of the Kite's movements counted for something -- for the Kite too?

Unabashedly anthropomorphizig...

Here are several photos of the Kite I saw this mornig. Its argument with the Crows. Its hunt, kiting stationless in the sky. And its resting, often on a perch with a good view.