[birdky] BKY: RPT - west KY July 5-7

July 5: Mark Monroe and I checked Morgan's Pond: 1 ad P-b Grebe; Great Blue
and Green herons; 10 Great Egrets; 1 Cattle Egret; 4 spp waterfowl including
the female Canvasback; 8 spp shorebirds incl 1 Am Golden-Plover, plenty of
Killdeer, 1 Gr Yellowlegs, 1 Les Yellowlegs, 1 Solitary Spiper, 1 Spotted
Spiper, 3 Least Spipers, 1 Pectoral Spiper.

July 6: Amy Covert and I went out to the Ky Lake D-cr Cormorant nesting site
in Calloway Co.  We counted 16 nests in a single tree, 14 of which contained
either apparently incubating/brooding adults (2) or medium-sized to large
young (12).  It's always neat to see something totally unexpected, and we
were totally unprepared for the sooty, black down that covers the young
cormorants!  For some reason, I was expecting white or gray, but their
bodies look like little black lab puppies.  The calls of the young also were
surprising; as we approached, I thought there was a flock of Ring-billed
Gulls behind the island, but it turned out to be the screaming of the young
. . . very unlike the squawks of young herons/egrets. Most nests appeared to
contain two young, some three, but it was hard to be sure from the angle.  

We also looked at the two islands above Barkley Dam for nesting waders; both
have Blk-crowned Night-Herons and Cattle Egrets, but no other species.  The
westernmost of the two islands had 3 Ring-billed Gulls, 3 Caspian Terns, and
an adult Laughing Gull perched on it.

July 7: we checked Least Tern nesting sites on the Ohio River above Paducah.
Not a lot of birds are engaging in nesting activity yet (some may have moved
elsewhere due to the high June levels).  The "traditional" nesting site near
Livingston Point is not what it used to be; a lower elevation caused by
shifting flow conditions has it barely out of the water at normal pool level
and there were no nesting birds.  The "sometimes good in the past"
Cottonwood Bar site has gradually become mostly covered in trees and had
only one bird incubating (amongst about 500 loafing Bank Swallows).  A new
site that the Army Corps of Engineers has actually created by placing dredge
material above the normal water line has 20-25 pairs nesting on a chain of
small islets (just barely into the IL side of the river), and about 20
courting birds were seen on the bars below Smithland Dam (although no nests
were evident).  One sandbar on the IL side had 155 Ring-billed Gulls; 15+
Caspian Terns, and one Forster's Tern.  Bars below Smithland Dam had about
40 Ringers, 1 Caspian Tern and 1 Forster's Tern.

bpb, Louisville
brainard.palmer-ball@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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