FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] RPT: Anderson/Washington County Breeding Bird Survey

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

On Saturday morning I conducted a BBS route in western Anderson and
Washington counties. It was a gorgeous, calm morning; about sunrise, I
checked the temperature in a particularly cool valley and it was 56
degrees F! I think I tallied 74 species plus a couple of more between
stops. Highlights were a single Henslow's Sparrow and a couple of Willow
Flycatchers (both normal for this route). This route has lots of old
fields and edges as evidenced by 29 Yellow-breasted Chats at 21 of 50
stops.
 
The nature highlight of the morning occurred at one very rural stop not
long after sunrise. There is a young woods on the right side of the road
with a thick grassy/weedy ground cover beneath the trees. As I often do
along the BBS routes, I coasted in to the stop and quietly shut the
door. Each BBS stop is 3 minutes long, and after about the first minute,
I began hearing "footsteps" moving through the woods not far away. At
first I thought maybe a deer had finally gotten spooked, but then I
realized the footsteps were getting louder and that there was more than
one animal, perhaps 3 or 4. I froze next to the vehicle, fully expecting
a small group of turkeys to come out of the grass at the edge of the
woods. When the first head poked out, I thought it was a large, brown
cat, but then realized it was a baby coyote, about a foot high (have no
idea how old that is). Soon another, then another, until EIGHT baby
coyotes were standing there in the mowed grass of the road shoulder, all
from 20 to 50 feet or so away! I just stood there and they looked at me
but were not frightened; instead they trotted around and sniffed and
came up onto the road, a few of them bantering with one another as kids
would do; it was truly one of those National Geographic moments. When
the 3 minutes for the stop were up, my countdown timer went off, and all
eight pups turned to see what the strange sound was. Not a one spooked,
though, until I moved my hand to shut off the timer; and then they
scattered like a lightning bolt had struck right in the middle of them
all!  However, within a few seconds, the bolder in the posse were back
out on the road and I continued to watch them spar with one another for
a minute or two longer before I decided I needed to move on. One
movement out of me and they were all back into the woods in a flash!
 
bpb, Frankfort