I never cease to be amazed at the ability of animals to adapt to changes in their environment. Thus my belief in micro-evolution - adaptations for survival - continues to be enforced. Macro-evolution, now that's another matter altogether. Trans-species changes seems a little far fetched. Where's the proof? But I digress.
One day at the neighborhood pool, I noticed a large black and white bird with tern-like swept wings soaring over our neighborhood park. Now, I don't usually spend my time at the pool staring at the sky trying to see what happens to be overhead at the time. In fact, given the preponderance of ravens, crows and police helicopters passing over throughout the day - each equally annoying in their own way - you can become desensitized to the sight of birds in the sky, an activity that I once had fun with. At first, I passed it off as a large sea bird until it perched on a tall tree in the park. Then it's hawk like features became evident.
I then noticed the nest perched in the highest part of the tree, and then the quiet calls of some young in the nest. My curiosity was switched on, and thus began our spring of watching the birds in the park.
The adult bird looked familiar to a Kite that I'd seen living in a nearby natural area. There are two types of Kites that live in the West - the Mississippi Kite and the White Tailed Kite - but only the White Tailed Kite lives this close to the coast. The white tail of the bird soaring overhead gave up its identity. Some White Tailed Kites were nesting in the neighborhood!
Over the past few weeks, the young have been growing in size and volume, to the point of easily giving up their location for all who entered the park. It has been fun watching for the adults to bring food to the young.
Then came this past Friday when the situation turned very interesting. At the pool Friday evening, as we were preparing to leave for home, Mardi noticed a group of teenagers congregating around something on the ground. "Jonathan, a baby Kite is on the ground!" she yelled out. And sure enough, there it was.
It was a beautiful juvenile (see example image at right), almost ready to fledge, but not quite there. I obviously had fallen from the nest. It was wobbly walking on the ground, and looked weak. The worst part, however, was how the teenagers were treating it. I don't know what it is about some kids, but they can be quite mean hearted and cruel with defenseless animals.
The kids were crowding around it, spitting at it and blowing smoke in its face. Poor thing! Mardi, Sarah and I were shocked at their actions, and were not going to put up with it!
We all walked over to the bird and just stood there next to it, not saying anything but just waiting to see what it, and the teens, would do next. The teens "blinked" first, and decided that we weren't going to leave anytime soon. So, they left. Score for the good team! I don't have a problem with nature taking its course. But, I did have a problem with nature being circumvented by a bunch of unruly teenagers.
We were concerned for the safety of the bird. The adults were nowhere to be seen, and another juvenile was in the nest high above. We decided to wait with the bird until nightfall (about 1 hour away) and then let nature take its course. While I stuck around, Mardi and the girls went home and called the Animal Rescue folks, but we were told that since it was a wild animal, they wouldn't interfere. Usually, they said, the parents would help the juveniles find shelter and continue to feed them until they were able to fly. They took a report anyway, and the Irvine Police came by to check it out. (I'm sure the police also were interested in checking out reports of a group of unruly teenagers loitering in a park smoking and obviously not up to any good!) Kudos to the Irvine Police Department (Irvine is the safest city in America with populations over 100k)!
So, I hung out with the Kite until dark, and left it alone. I do hope the adults were able to help it to shelter. We tried to find it the next day, but found no sign of it. The second juvenile still is in the nest. We do hope it successfully fledges.
We live in an amazing area of congestion, development and, surprisingly, great diversity of animal life. Along with the Kite, we regularly see and hear coyotes (a pack woke me up one night recently whooping it up as they walked down our street!), lots of hawks overhead and hear the occasional stories of bobcats and mountain lions in the nearby hills. I've even seen a Road Runner on a nearby path. It's a very cool place indeed.
