FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] RPT: A little more info on YB Loon

[Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx]

Looking at Jeff Wilson's photos of Y-b Loons in TN recently suggests that
the KY bird MAY be the immature bird he found and photographed there.
Images of his "Rocky Point" "3-06-2004" bird = the immature at:
http://www.pbase.com/ol_coot/loon_species  look VERY much like the bird up
in Marshall County.  I personally flip-flopped on the age of the bird all
day, looking at other marks than the back feather edgings when it was close.
Have not pulled photos out of the camera yet, but I'd say there's a decent
chance that the KY bird is the imm. bird from TN, especially since it
appears that both have left TN. It has the same malar mark that the Marshall
Co bird has and nothing jumps out as different. Roseanna said the bird is
definitely not the "large billed" adult that Jeff first found (she saw that
one personally).

In finding the bird, the best tact both days has been to follow the ATV
trail up over the top of the wooded point to the south of the gravel parking
area at the end of KY 962 and all the way back down to the gravelly shore on
the other side of the point where you have a good, clear pan of the lake.
The bird has stayed on the west side of the lake and even on one occasion
yesterday entered the "Girl Scout Camp" bay several hundred yards to the
south of the point, giving us GREAT looks at 30-40 yards for a few minutes.

Details on other birds from yesterday and Sat: a nice-looking Red-necked
Grebe (assumed to be the previously reported one from Little Bear Creek ramp
at mid-week) was seen off Sherwood Shores on Sat and then from the end of KY
962 yesterday (Bill Lisowsky). After Bill saw this bird, we looked and
looked, but could never find it again.  Roseanna found a probable Pacific
Loon WAY across the lake from the end of KY 962 yesterday, but conditions
weren't quite good enough for us to pin down the ID (unless she did after
Amy and I left).  On Saturday, Ben Yandell had found a Red-throated Loon in
the same area way across the lake (probably the bird Melissa saw yesterday).
I also saw a small loon flying up the lake in the company of a Common that
looked like a Pacific yesterday morning, but it kept going.

OUR Red-throated Loon yesterday was between the mouth of Sledd Creek and the
dam (a very pale naped, dark backed immy).

The Little Gull was with a loose flock of Bony's on the east side of the
lake just (within several hundred yards) of the locks. A distant but clear
view from the easternmost pullout when heat waves weren't too bad.  Both
days there was a VERY white Glaucous gull above the dam around the buoys and
Amy and I saw another off Sherwood Shores on Sat. We also saw a nicely
marked first-year Lesser Black-backed at the boat ramp below KY Dam on Sat.

I'll try to get loon photos posted to KOS web site this evening.

bpb, Louisville
================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBERS==============

The BIRDKY Mailing List requires you to sign 
your messages with first & last name, city, & 
state abbreviation.
--------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, send e-mail to:
birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
-------------------------------------------------- 
To unsubscribe, send e-mail to:
birdky-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject line.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
Visit the Kentucky Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos.htm
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
BIRDKY List Manager: Gary Ritchison, Richmond, KY
E-mail: gary.ritchison@xxxxxxx