FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] RPT: Ky Dam vicinity Larids May 11-12

["Palmer-Ball, Brainard \(EPPC OOS KNPC\)" <Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx>]

The family Laridae put in a strong showing in the vicinity of Kentucky Dam the 
past couple of days.
 
On Thursday afternoon, Ben and Mary Yandell arrived at the Ky Dam Village 
marina roof to find hundreds of terns (Forster's and Common) on the roof with 
smaller numbers of gulls. Later in the afternoon, a re-check yielded an 
estimate of an incredible 800-1000 Forster's/Common Terns! Right before sunset 
I got by and counted something in the neighborhood of 300 still there, at least 
220 of which were Commons!
 
Yesterday we checked the marina again and there were 384+ Forster's/Commons 
with many more foraging on northern Ky Lake and below the dam.
 
Here are max counts for a really nice mix of  Larids:
 
Franklin's Gull: 5 including two gorgeous pink full adults May 12
 
Laughing Gull: 5 on both May 11 & 12
 
Bonaparte's Gull: 1 first-year on May 11
 
Herring Gull: 8 sub-adults (mostly first-year) May 11
 
Ring-billed Gulls: hardly noticed them with all the other birds ... maybe 50+ 
May 12 (we think this may be the first time we ever remember terns outnumbering 
gulls in the dams area, especially by such a wide margin!)
 
Common Tern: highest count we got was 230 on the marina roof with another 50 
milling about .. mostly below dam for a minimum count of 280 ... a WAY new 
state high count on May 12.
 
Forster's Tern: thru elimination of the larger numbers of Commons and some 
extrapolation, 125 seems to be a safe minimum count for Forsters. Note that Ben 
and Mary did not attempt a breakdown of the 800-1000 on May 11, so we're not 
really sure what the peak counts for each species really were. David Roemer was 
also at the dam on morning of May 11 and he may have some additional numbers to 
help clarify.
 
Caspian Tern: 10 on May 11
 
Black Tern: 4 on May 12
 
bpb, Louisville