FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] RPT: Misc observations

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

I've been out for work and Breeding Bird Survey routes a bit in the last week 
or so.

On June 14th, I flew with John Brunjes (Ky Dept of Fish and Wildlife Resources) 
to assess this year's Least Tern nesting habitat on the lower Ohio and 
Misssissippi rivers. The rivers are a bit below normal for this time of year, 
so terns have lots of places to nest, especially on the Mississippi ... 
however, low river levels allow access by ATVs and spell doom for birds at 
sites that connect to "land" too soon.  Great Egrets were noted nesting with 
Great Blues at Sloughs WMA, Union Co. (at least 5 nests) and at Murphys Pond, 
Hickman Co. (20+ nests). The most disappointing sighting of the day was the 
lack of egret/heron nests again at Long Point, Reelfoot NWR, in Fulton Co. It 
is really too bad that the birds keep leaving this site. I can't imagine why 
unless it has to do with reduced feeding areas in the lower Hickman bottoms due 
to low water levels???

On June 17 and 18, I ran two BBS routes in southern Indiana. Highlights were a 
Chuck-will's-widow in Washington Co. and Cooper's Hawks on both routes.

On June 20, I ran my Livingston Co. BBS route. The morning was still but got 
hot quickly and other than a Henslow's Sparrow where I normally get one, route 
highlights were lacking. I usually have very close Chuck-will's-widows at the 
1st and 3rd stops of this route. Over the years I've gotten greats looks and 
listens to a variety of behaviors and calls of this secretive species for the 3 
minutes I share their territories with them just before dawn once a year in 
June.  This year I had a bird giving the call desribed by Sibley as "grof" 
repeatedly as if it was sitting at a roosting spot. I figured the bird might 
have settled down there and I returned to the spot when I finished the route 
and quietly walked up that way from the road. To my surprise, two birds flushed 
with a female (no white in tail) engaging in an elaborate distraction display 
and repeated "grof" calling. Despite an intensive search of the area from which 
the birds flushed, I could not locate young or eggs, but the female continued 
to periodically fly back and forth every few minutes. I retreated and went to 
the other spot where I had heard a bird giving the "grof" call in the pre-dawn. 
I flushed no birds here, but I did find a fragment from a Chuck-will's-widow 
egg!

I continued some searching for nesting birds in Union County on my way home. At 
the old Camp 11 mine I located two Bell's Vireos nests, one containing a huge 
baby cowbird (under it were single cowbird and vireo eggs); the other nest was 
empty but looked ready for egg-laying. Also present at Camp 11 were no less 
than 11 adult Common Moorhens (3 pairs plus singles, some of which may have 
been associated with birds on nests); about 10 American Coots (some paired but 
no evidence of nesting); 3 Least Bitterns (1 seen, 2 more heard); and a feeding 
Least Tern. Nearby at the Camp 9 prep plant slurry pond, I could detect at 
leats 6 Least Terns on nests despite the intense radiation waves. Also of 
interest were 2 basic-plumaged American Golden-Plovers in the company of about 
200 Killdeer scattered about. We have had a couple of June records of single 
Goldens, but two really must mean that a small percentage of birds begin their 
southward flight this early ? ? ?

bpb, Frankfort