On my way back from getting another sack of green chiles this morning, I stopped to photograph a Mississippi Kite that I noticed had started hanging out in a cottonwood along Dixon Road after our neighbor’s tree was downed by lighting a few weeks ago.

Just as I positioned myself where I could photograph the Kite, a juvenile landed next to the adult and started begging for food. The adult took off, and the juvenile perched on the branch squawking for the adult to come back with some food, but the adult was soaring way to the south far away from junior. After a while it started looking around, spied some prey, flew off and returned moments later with what looked to be a cicada or possibly a dragonfly. It proudly held its catch in its paw, seemingly happy with the success of obtaining food on its own.

I took Stretch in for his monthly checkup. he’s holding pretty steady, which means we still have to give him fluids every other day. The vet is going to check on Monday to see if she can get a pharmacy to put together a topical form of Benazapril, a medicine that increases blood flow to the kidneys. She said if she can get it mixed up in a topical form, then all we have to do is apply it to the inside of his ear, which is much less stressful that poking a pill down him.