FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] RPT: Misc locales March 19-20

[Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx]

Amy and I took a swing west last weekend. On Saturday afternoon, we did a
little run through of the Peabody WMA (everyone should note that 2004 use
permits are no longer valid -- they needed to be renewed starting March 1);
there wasn't much going on except that Pine Warblers were back in numbers
and a light morph Rough-legged Hawk was still at Ken Hopewell in Ohio
County. On Sunday, we started out in Hopkins County, where we found a fairly
nice variety of waterbirds at Lake Peewee including 5 Common Loons, 20+
Horned Grebes, a neat flock of 24 Greater Scaup (up close and in good
light); 4 Redheads, 20+ Bufflehead, 2 male Red-br Mergs, and about 50-75
Ruddy Ducks. A strip mine lake west of Madisonville had some more Greater
Scaup with Lessers. In the afternoon we drove north to Sauerheber and did a
run through of those environs. There were a decent number of shorebirds, but
all appeared to be Greater Yellowlegs, Pects and Wilson's Snipe (plus flight
call of a single Am Golden-Plover). Another pair of Greater Scaup on one
slough suggested that Greaters are on the move right now. Back at the Pond
Creek Marsh, we aced the dabblers with some No Pintail and Am Black Ducks
still in the mix. Rusty Blackbirds were certainly as widespread as one could
imagine they could be, with flocks of a dozen to several hundred scattered
about every wet woodlot and marshy area. We also heard and saw our first
Purple Martins of the year and were able to handle a pretty copperbelly
water snake that must have just come out of hibernation (it was too cold to
put up much of a fuss).  As has been reported by Charlie C., the Sauerheber
eagles are busy at their nest, but the pair at the swamp north of Audubon
State Park did not seem to have eggs or young in their nest; only one bird
was seen and it only briefly landed at the nest. Not sure if they are just
late to start or have met with some sort of failure or moved.  The Great
Blues are certainly busy at their nests.

bpb and alc
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