{"id":39553,"date":"2025-08-07T23:43:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T03:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/?p=39553"},"modified":"2025-08-07T23:43:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T03:43:01","slug":"just-because-part-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2025\/08\/just-because-part-56\/","title":{"rendered":"Just because, part 56"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Heard the distinctive calls of the Mississippi kite (<em>Ictinia mississippiensis<\/em>) while working at my desk, which is somewhat unusual &#8211; <del>I&#8217;m never at my desk<\/del> they don&#8217;t call very often, usually wheeling overhead silently. So I went out with the long lens and eventually snagged a nice shot of one perched in a tree nearby.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/JaySquawking-tweak.jpg\" alt=\"Mississippi kite Ictinia mississippiensis  perched in treetop being harassed by blue jay Cyanocitta cristata overhead\" width=\"750\" height=\"972\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39554\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>The bird passing overhead is a blue jay (<em>Cyanocitta cristata<\/em>,) a pair of which were <em>very<\/em> unhappy about the presence of the kite, to which the kite paid little heed<strong>;<\/strong> this does serve as a great illustration of the size of Mississippi kites, though. The behavior of the jays was such that I would have said there was a nest nearby if it had been anywhere near that season, which it is not. But then again, jays are pretty territorial overall and have been making a fuss the past few days anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Curiously, this appears to be the first time that I&#8217;ve ever featured a blue jay, which seems quite odd to me until I recall that they were almost never seen where we used to live, <em>why<\/em>, I couldn&#8217;t say. But the very thought made me dig out one of the earliest digital photos that I have of them, just shy of 20 years old now, a couple of recently released juvie rehab patients being clumsy with a tray of mealworms &#8211; I just loved the expressiveness of the frame.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FlingingWorms.jpg\" alt=\"two juvenile blue jays Cyanocitta cristata, one overturning tray of mealworms\" width=\"750\" height=\"563\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39555\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heard the distinctive calls of the Mississippi kite (Ictinia mississippiensis) while working at my desk, which is somewhat unusual &#8211; I&#8217;m never at my desk they don&#8217;t call very often, usually wheeling overhead silently. So I went out with the long lens and eventually snagged a nice shot of one perched in a tree nearby. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[8236,8237,8082,8081],"class_list":["post-39553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature","category-photo","tag-blue-jay","tag-cyanocitta-cristata","tag-ictinia-mississippiensis","tag-mississippi-kite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}