With the interest and persistence of Mr. David Ware of Parkside Elementary School in Collier County, ARCI has the opportunity to track a new Swallow-tailed Kite at the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. Mr. Ware became familiar with ARCI’s blogs and tracking work and wanted his students and school district to help with the tracking program. He reached out to us with this idea and the fundraising began. The school raised enough money to be matched with a generous donation from the Friends of the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges, as well as the Florida Ornithological Society.
During the breeding season, nest searching occurred on the refuge, and we identified five nests that were monitored by members of the friends group.
The school district had a contest to name the Swallow-tailed Kite within a theme to include a place name or geographic feature name. The winning choice was “Suwannee Scout.”
On the day of trapping in late June, we had a plan to trap at the northernmost nests, but to our dismay they were both empty and most likely failed. We had to find a new place to trap at an active nest site. Fortunately, at our southernmost site, we saw an active nest and were able to set up on a forest road nearby.
ARCI’s Gina Kent and Gianna Arcuri, experienced bird banders Charlie Muise and Wenyi Zhou from the University of Florida, and Nichole Jones from the Avian Reconditioning Center made up the capture and tagging team. We can’t forget to mention the crucial role the glove-trained, Great Horned Owl ambassador, Gracie, provided as a lure to bring the adult Swallow-tailed Kite in for the capture.
By 9:20, a lone Kite was captured! It took about 30 minutes to take measurements and attach the small GPS-tracker backpack. Then, “Suwannee Scout” was on its way, back onto its breeding territory. A few small feathers were collected and sent to a lab for DNA sampling to asses the gender of Suwannee Scout, which we will reveal when the results are in.
The students of Parkside Elementary School will join us in learning about the movements of this Swallow-tailed Kite from breeding home ranges, pre-migratory destinations, foraging areas, stopover sites, migratory routes, and winter activity ranges. A variety of lessons on geography, culture, and biology can be applied to this tracking data.
Thanks to the staff at the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge for facilitating our access to the beautiful refuge to make this possible. Thank you to the staff at the Avian Reconditioning Center, especially Nicole Jones for joining the trap team with Gracie, the Great Horned Owl. Funding from the Friends of the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges and the Florida Ornithological Society were greatly appreciated. Thanks to the Parkside Elementary School and the Collier County public school district, not only for their great fundraising abilities, but for their interest in this project and for voting on a great name for Suwannee Scout. And a big shout-out to Mr. David Ware of Parkside Elementary School to get the ball rolling on this collaboration.
*Capture, banding, and tagging of Swallow-tailed Kites is done under current State, Federal, and local permits.
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