FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] RPT: West KY, August 30, 2003 -- LONG

[Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

> Mark Monroe and I did an August big day in west KY on Saturday, the 30th.
> Dodging rain showers and trying to visit a number of locations kept us
> moving, and the results were interesting in many ways. 
> 
> We started at 5:00 am CDT in Muhlenberg County, thinking there might be
> some nocturnal sounds to hear. Unfortunately, this is when Mother Nature
> decided to do most of her raining on us, but fortunately we apparently
> didn't miss much because when it wasn't raining there was very little to
> hear until right before sunrise (save for a single Great Horned Owl call).
> The reclaimed mines of Sinclair WMA were nearly silent until just after
> 6:00, when a short dawn chorus of Field Sparrows, Yellow-breasted Chats,
> and Eastern Towhees occurred.  Included in this chorus was another Great
> Horned Owl and two Whip-poor-wills (both of which uttered only 4 or 5
> calls); the Whips gave real meaning to being at the right place at the
> RIGHT time.  We tooled around the WMA for about an hour and a half,
> gradually ticking off grassland and edge birds including two species that
> must be breeding at this late date (Sedge Wrens (2) and Henslow's Sparrows
> (10+)), as well as Northern Harriers (2 or 3), Blue Grosbeaks (several),
> Prairie Warbler (1), Bell's Vireos (10), Dickcissel (a few), Wild Turkey
> (1) and Northern Bobwhites (a few).  A few other passerines like Warbling
> Vireo, Yellow Warbler, and Northern Parula rounded out the passerines. Our
> best bird of the day turned out to be a gorgeous Lark Sparrow that flew
> across S2 road west of the white-and-red conveyor.  Both of us thought it
> was something weird at first glance, but were surprised when we walked up
> the hill to determine its identity and found it to be a bird in beautiful,
> fresh (post juvenile?) plumage. Another surprise in the same general area
> was a singing Marsh Wren in a small patch of reeds along the roadside.  We
> pished up the bird, and it was in juvenile plumage (as pictured by
> Sibley), without white back streaking and a strong supercilium.  We had to
> wonder how far this bird had come from its hatching site (they must
> migrate in this plumage?). Shorebirds at the ash basin included only
> common species except for two Westerns. Mark found two Soras feeding along
> the edge of the reeds. Heading down the WKPkwy, we already had more than
> 70 species on the day.
> 
> On our way west we stopped by northern Lake Barkley and added most of the
> waders at the Kuttawa heronry as well as Black Vultures and a few
> passerines like Pine Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, and House Finch.
> 
> Next was a visit to Land Between the Lakes, where we had decided to devote
> at least an hour to ticking off some woodland species. Earlier in the week
> we had envisioned the passage of the now infamous stalled out "cold" front
> of Labor Day weekend 2003 (rain, rain, rain) and many early fall migrants
> in the mix, but with the front sitting on top of us we had to settle for a
> single Tennessee Warbler as the only definite migrant. Woodland species
> that put in a showing included a Great Crested Flycatcher, Red-eyed
> (several) and Yellow-throated vireos (2), American Redstart (1),
> Blue-winged Warbler (2), Worm-eating Warbler (5), both tanagers (sev of
> each), and most of the woodpeckers (I missed all of two or three Pileateds
> Mark heard/saw during the day for our only unshared species). It was
> interesting to see what species of woodland birds we know to be common in
> LBL in spring and summer could be easily found at this date -- Blue-gray
> Gnatcatchers were the most abundant by far.
> 
> Kentucky Dam yielded only the expected: Common Loon, Ring-billed and
> Herring gulls, and Caspian Terns. When we left the dams area, our tally
> was 103 species.
> 
> Our next stop was perhaps the most unproductive of the day, the Island No
> 1/Laketon sandbars on the Miss River, Carlisle County.  Weather had seemed
> excellent for dropping out some migrant waterbirds, but waterfowl,
> shorebirds, and larids were scarce. We added only Greater Yellowlegs and
> Spotted Sandpiper there.  Mississippi Kite was added on the day, with most
> of the few birds observed being juveniles. One stop also yielded calling
> Fish Crows, a family of Prothonotary Warblers and a Black-throated Green,
> our only other true warbler migrant.
> 
> Stops farther south on the Westvaco WMA were a bit better. We were able to
> find our only Least Terns of the day (3), as well as Solitary Sandpiper,
> Acadian Flycatcher (in song), Olive-sided Flycatcher, Cliff Swallow and
> Baltimore Oriole.
> 
> Then it was a drive south to western Fulton County.  This area added some
> expected birds like House Sparrow (yep - we'd missed it until we got to
> Hickman!), Eurasian Collared-Dove, Loggerhead Shrike, and Horned Lark.
> Lake No. 9 has little shorebird habitat and we added none to the day list.
> The south end of the lake held some dabblers and we added both species of
> teal and Northern Shoveler, as well as a cleanly marked juvenile
> Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (the last bird of the day at #130).  The most
> interesting bird there was a teal with a completely chestnut belly,
> obviously spatulate bill, and a later molt pattern than all the
> Blue-wingeds.  We would have liked to have called the bird a drake
> Cinnamon, but the eye did not appear red, so we left it considered a
> hybrid.
> 
> There were several other birds that we left uncounted, including a small,
> non-Acadian Empidonax and a small sparrow that was either a Grasshopper or
> Savannah. Whenever you cover a lot of ground you also lament the fact that
> certain "sub-lists" are not better (for example we only had 10 spp of
> shorebirds and 13 spp of warblers . . . had we concentrated on either
> group the respective lists would have been significantly greater), but
> were satisfied that with the lack of passerine migrants, we'd had a pretty
> decent day for August.
> 
> bpb, Louisville
> brainard.palmer-ball AT mail.state.ky.us
> 
================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBERS==============

The BIRDKY Mailing List requires you to sign 
your messages with first & last name, city, & 
state abbreviation.
--------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, send e-mail to:
birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
-------------------------------------------------- 
To unsubscribe, send e-mail to:
birdky-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject line.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
Visit the Kentucky Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos.htm
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
BIRDKY List Manager: Gary Ritchison, Richmond, KY
E-mail: gary.ritchison@xxxxxxx