Ballard WMA opened yesterday and today found me there. As Dave
mentioned in his post, waterfowl numbers are very low. 5 common duck
species, snow and canada goose rounded out the waterfowl and no
shorebirds were observed. The highlights were Bald eagle, Bonaparte's
gull, fish crow, purple martin and tree swallows. Quite a lot of dirt
work is being done along the bottom fields. Berms and drainage pipes
are being installed that will hopefully provide more moist soil areas
although I suspect they will only be flooded in winter and will soon be
planted in corn. Also, there seems to be an extensive controlled burn
being done on the refuge. Several roadside fescue areas and large
wooded tracts have been burned. I hope that this is being done to
encouarage the reestablishment of native grasses and forbs on the area.
It will be interesting to see what new species may appear.
Scott Record
Ragland KY
