FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] RPT: Piping plover at Falls of the Ohio

["Ben Yandell" <by@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mary and I watched a piping plover from 6:45-7:45 tonight (8/24).  We were
at the Interpretive Center on the Indiana side of the Falls of the Ohio.  

The bird was a ghostly white dot through the heat waves on the fossil beds
near the wall across the way.  Other than a brief episode of stop-and-start
running along the rocks, the bird stood still or crouched down much of the
time, perhaps due to the peregrine falcon preening less than 100 yards away.
Looking at the wall on the other side of the fossil beds, the bird was in
the middle of the rocks between the first and second cuts in the wall
starting from the left.  The water level at the Falls is up quite a bit, by
the way.

Bird was pale, with dark eyes, orange/yellow legs, light-gray back, white
breast.  Hard to get much detail, but I did take 26 handheld digiscoped
pictures, each fuzzier than the other.  It didn't act like a bird that was
headed anywhere soon, so maybe it will still be there in the morning when
the seeing is better.

Ben and Mary Yandell
Louisville