FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Kentucky Dam/Gull Number

["Bennett, Mark" <mbennett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

December 15, 2002:
 
I was with Hap Chambers for about 2 and 1/2 hours yesterday trying to count
gulls at Barkley Dam and Kentucky Dam for the LBC/CBC.  The rest of the day,
each of us tried to cover the remainder of our respective territories.
 
Yesterday was one of those days when the entire day would have been needed
to get a good feel for the variety of species present at Kentucky Dam.  More
skill in gulls than I have would also have been helpful.  While there were
probably about 1,000 gulls at Barkley Dam, the real show was at Kentucky
Dam.  The gates were open and many gulls were feeding.  It is a shame that
construction of the new bridge just downstream has much of the best viewing
area blocked from birders.
 
Nonetheless, the view of the gulls was awesome.  I would estimate that over
10,000 gulls are present between the Tennessee River Bridge and the area
just above the dam.
 
Above the dam were around 1,000 Bonaparte's Gulls, well over that number of
Ring-billed Gulls, few Herring Gulls and one adult Lesser Black-backed Gull.
There were so many gulls here that anything resembling a thorough search for
rarities was impossible in the time allowed.  It was like a giant raft of
white waterfowl, beautiful to behold.  This beauty is impossible to for me
to convey with the written word.
 
Below the dam was far better/worse.  There had to be over 7,500 birds
between the I-24 bridge and the dam.  The air behind the dam was full of
gulls flying around and feeding in the churning water created by the open
gates and the power plant.  Drifting down the river as far as the Interstate
bridge was a huge raft of unending gulls.  The flying birds could be
compared to snow flakes in a blizzard, they were so dense.  The white dots
drifting on the water were like thousands of angelic waterfowl.  The raft
was composed mostly of Ring-billed Gulls, but also contained good numbers of
Bonaparte's Gulls and Herring Gulls.  The sad note is that there was not a
gull expert present in all of these gulls (no offense intended, Hap) to sort
through these birds proficiently.
 
My favorite natural scene remains a storm of Snow Geese that have been
disturbed and is simultaneously taking flight, flying around in a panic, and
landing, while cackling all the time.  The scene at Kentucky Dam with the
gull blizzard has to be a close second as my call for the most spectacular
natural site in North America.
 
The birds of the day from my territory were a single Red-necked Grebe and 9
American White Pelicans on Lake Barkley.
 
That concludes this (non)report.
 
Mark Bennett
Director of Federal Programs
Logan County School District
2222 Bowling Green Road
270-726-2436
mbennett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:mbennett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
 
 


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